Absolute Chaos
by mg56
Summary: Bubbles and Buttercup are at logerheads, and Blossom is caught in the middle. So how does this leed to the end of the world? FINISHED
1. Summary

**1. Summary**

Okay, hello again and welcome to another sequel. If you haven't read any of my other stories, please don't run away just yet, as the following summary should hep you catch up, and I'd be really grateful to any new readers, especially if you have criticisms.

If your confused, feel free to bombard me with questions.

If you have read all my previous stories, wow, some one came back! You should move on to chapter two as there is nothing new here.

Powerpuff Characters: All these are from the normal series, I did not create them and do not own them. Puffs/Ruffs are 33 years old.

Blossom: Married (see below) with two children. Has been through the mill recently, ranging from having completely given up her superpowers to being the leader of all superheroes, and then back down again. Having lost a lot of confidence in her self, Blossom is back on the rise again, although no where near the level of when she was a kid.

Bubbles: Is married to Boomer (predictably). Bubbles has recently received a huge boost in her strength and power (see below) that is perhaps having an adverse affect on her behaviour. At the end of the previous story, she blew up a group of clones Mojo had created before they were "born", and also tried to kill an already mobile one when there was no visible need. This action has put her at loggerheads with Buttercup.

Buttercup: Is married to Butch, and has been for eight years. She has had serious fertility problems, and the one time Butch and her were able to conceive, she lost the baby. Still haunted by this, she was horrified by Bubbles' actions and her lack of any reaction. Is also currently having a small crisis with Butch.

Butch: Married to Buttercup, (yes, I know I just said). Also now a superhero, but still manages to abuse his position to make money in less than legal ways. HE was recently caught doing this, but has just about convinced Buttercup to let him back in the house. Devastated by the loss of the baby, Butch blames himself for the fact that they haven't had a child, but he has shown signs of wanting to care for SP (see below.)

Boomer: Married to Bubbles, is now a superhero, and much more honest about it than Butch. However, he seems to be the only one who can't tell/doesn't care that there is something different about Bubbles.

Brick: Died at seventeen, details of this in "Can you keep a Secret." Despite this obvious handicap, he is still a major character. Now works for Death(!) collecting the souls of those who have just died. Has a horse called Katharine. He is still in love with Blossom, who also still loves him. Brick is currently looking after Buttercup's dead unborn baby, who he's called brandy. (Yes, I got the name from Madame Fist's stories, but I do have approval, and it was intentional, so it's okay.)

Any other characters from the standard series can be assumed to be in the same state as in the show, just suitably older.

Crossover characters: I use these because I'm unoriginal. More may (and will) appear as needed, but only the two below are major characters.

Eddy: From Ed, Edd and Eddy, is married to Blossom(?) Not really accepted by Bubbles and Buttercup, but more so by Butch and Butch. Quite how he got here isn't clear. He is fully aware that Blossom loves Brick more then him, and is able to accept this, although not very well. Struggles to tell Blossom how he really feels, so tries to ignore it by focusing on the children.

Sonic: Yes, the Hedgehog, (I know, I Know.) He is the leader of the Superheroes, making him the puffs/ruffs boss. Sonic initially hated Blossom, due to her seemingly perfect childhood, compared to Sonic, who was fighting a war on his home planet. Sonic fled to earth after being falsely accused of murdering his wife and son. Has eventually grown to like Blossom as much as he can like a person, and claims that they have had "Parallel Lives." I will have clear that it is purely a friendship however (don't be sick.)

My characters: Characters I created. Feel free to use, if you can find one for them (which you won't, because no sane person would pair Eddy and Blossom…)

Edward: Blossom and Eddy's son, ten years old. Didn't know his mum was a superhero until very recently (did know about Bubbles and Buttercup), and not to keen on it himself. Has an ambition to be a rally driver, and refuses to use his powers at all. His greatest fear is that he may be destined to be a superhero, and that's something he's determined to fight off by ignoring. Very protective of his sister.

MJ: Edwards's younger sister, five years old. She has the same knowledge of her family as Edward does, but desperately wants to be a superhero. Varies between being happy and chirpy to seeming very withdrawn. Was being bullied at school, until Edward took matters into his own hands, but still doesn't have many friends. Also now has powers similar to Spiderman as well as her Puff powers. (See below)

Roland: Another of Death's workers, merely there as someone for Brick to talk to. (Technically he's a cross over character, but I'm not saying where from. Five pounds to anyone who works it out!)

Sonia: Sonic's daughter.

SP: A clone of MJ, SP was created by Mojo to act as a prototype for an arm of clones that he was creating (subsequently destroyed by Bubbles.) Bubbles also tried to destroy SP, but she was saved by Butch, who feels responsible, as he helped Mojo create her. SP later escaped, and is now determined to kill Bubbles, MJ and Mojo (who sent her away for failing). SP has purple eyes and Black hair, and is a defective clone, so is weaker then MJ.

Other concepts

SSR: the government funded superhero organisation. Sonic was charge and Blossom was second in command, but Sonic treated her more as a glorified secretary. When Sonic got arrested and taken back to his home planet for execution, Blossom took over as leader, but later got arrested herself for murder. In the end Sonic got back and took over the SSR again, but Blossom is now a proper second in command. The other Puffs/Ruffs are also members, as well as anyone else I pull out of thin air.

Blossom's secret: Related to Brick's death, it plays a huge part in this story. Basically, in confusing, high pressure circumstances, Blossom ended up killing Superman, who'd just killed Brick. Sonic was first on the scene, and covered up for her by claiming that Brick killed Superman, and Blossom killed Brick in response. Other people that were aware of the truth were Eddy, Butch and Boomer – who were told so they didn't try to get Blossom out of her sister's lives. NOTE, Bubbles and Buttercup did not know.

Eventually, it was found out be the rest of the world, and Blossom was in jail awaiting almost certain execution, when the remaining citizens of Superman's home planet arrived to try and conquer earth. Blossom was able to defeat there leader and became the hero of the hour. She was thus pardoned for her crimes, but is still not the most popular member of the SSR with those close to Superman.

MJ's Power's: MJ was changed into a half spider creature by Him when she asked him for superpowers, before her mother had told her that she had them naturally. Like spider-man, she can fire web lines from her wrists and stick to walls, but she also has two large front canine teeth, and the ability to spit acid. She still has her puff powers too, which makes her stronger then any of the Puffs/ruffs, except possibly Bubbles now.

However, the spider side of her mind is often difficult to control, and MJ had on occasion's gone crazy around blood and meat (as per Him's original intention.)

SP has the same powers as MJ, but is weaker. She has actually killed some one though. She and MJ also share a mental link, which means that if one is asleep they will see what the other is doing.

Chaos Energy: Sonic claims that the Chemical X that created the Puffs is actually a chaos liquid, the source of the Chaos energy from his world. He also says that Chaos energy is naturally evil, so that the puffs/ruffs are very dangerous especially if they are angry. Blossom has twice lost control of herself due to anger, and immediately became a lot more powerful, but with the side affect of not being able to control her self. This also explains why the more aggressive Buttercup is naturally the best fighter, and how Bubbles has previously got stronger when she's been angry. Bubbles has accidentally absorbed a Chaos Emerald, which is what cause her to change.

Apology: Sorry to Terry Prachett, who I've stolen some ideas off (but I'm in good company in that field!)

Right, if you think this is stupid, press the back button and I wish you all the best. If you think this could be good, but don't understand what I've just written, or want to know more, you can go skim read my earlier stories, or ask me a question in a review. If you want to read the story, let's begin.


	2. Bubbles' Strength

Okay, here's the first proper chapter. This will be a long story, and I will be using more crossover characters, but hopefully not too much. I am very open to requests though, so if you have any ideas, just say.

Oh yes, and the first chapter is traditionally short, okay.

**

* * *

2. Bubbles' Strength**

Roland was slumped on the couch when Brick got home. "How was your day?" he asked, as Brick hung his black cloak up on the rack.

"Long," he said. "Some lunatic went on the rampage, caused absolute chaos. I was there for hours."

"That was over hours ago!" said Roland grumpily. Brick shifted.

"I did stop to see Blossom on the way back," he admitted, "but that's only to be expected, right?"

"Did you see her?"

Brick looked at Roland and guessed that his room mate already knew. "No, she was out."

"Of course," said Roland, "so why were you so late?"

"What's it too you anyway!" said Brick, trying to keep calm.

"I'll tell you what it is! Brandy's teething and I spent all day looking after her! She's your niece; you should be the suffering, with cotton wool in your ears."

Brick listened for a moment. "It doesn't seem that bad," he said.

"That's because she's asleep," said Roland, "earlier, the neighbours were here complaining."

"Which neighbours?"

"The deaf old couple that live… sorry death… next door."

"Ah." Brick paused. "But I can hardly help it; she's not going to cry any less if I'm here."

"No," admitted Roland, "But then I can go out!"

"Alright, alright, keep you hair on," Brick shifted slightly. "Actually, I'm going to be quiet busy."

"I know you are, you're going to be busy looking after Brandy."

"No, I mean I've got things to do."

Roland shot him a look. "You mean you're going to meddle in Blossom's life again."

Brick looked surprised. "No!" He paused. "Okay, yes."

Roland shook his head. "You can't keep doing this. Death has let you meddle three times already, that's three times more then most people. You don't want to double cross Death."

"Why?"

"Because he knows the man upstairs."

"But this is important! It's Bubbles, she's acting really weirdly, and it's…"

"None of your business," said Roland firmly. "You'll only get into terrible trouble."

"That's never bothered me when I was alive."

"But your dead now and the rules are different."

"Oh what to you know," sulked Brick.

"Hey, I was dead before you were born!" said Roland. "So I Know. And anyway, so Bubbles is acting a bit strange. How bad can it be?"

* * *

Buttercup landed on the edge of the police cordon. The police chief hurried over to her. "Thank goodness you're here," he said breathlessly. "He's up there!"

Buttercup looked up at the skyscraper that the police had surrounded. "Ah, I see. The big hole in the wall."

"Yes," said the police chief. "He's got the editor, and says that he wants Spider-man in thirty minutes, or he'll kill him." Buttercup nodded. Too bad Sonic had Parker on vacation right now.

"Okay," she said calmly, "I'll deal with it!" With that, she shot off to the hole in the wall, leaving a characteristic green streak behind. As she approached, the huge black monster spotted her, although he didn't react just yet. As described, the editor of the Daily Bugle, (who owned the building) J .J .Jamberson, was being held by his throat by the monster over the street below. Still he'd lost none of his usual vigour.

"It's about time!" he barked. (Well, croaked as he was being strangled.) Buttercup took limited notice, preferring to focus on the more obvious opponent.

"Hey, Venom," she sneered (heroically of course), "your arm must be getting tired by now, why don't you put him down?"

"_Go away!" _shrieked Venom angrily, _"We want Spider-man, not you!"_

"I can make you want me," Buttercup said calmly, and zapped Venom in the hand. He dropped JJ in shock and Buttercup swept down after him. The catch was perfect and she deposited the stunned chief on the ground safely. Textbook, she thought to her self. All she needed to do now was tack the corny dialogue on the end (she hated this but it was a government requirement.)

Buttercup wasn't in a very creative mood, so it was partly to her great relief that she only got as far as opening her mouth, before Venom landed behind her (apparently none the worse for ware,) and smacked her flying parallel to the ground into the nearest wall. The crowd that had been in a ring around the building dispersed to a safe watching place surprisingly quickly, even the police officers had the sense not to hang around. Buttercup just had time to acknowledge this before she was forced to acknowledge the police car hurtling through the air towards her.

To Buttercups mind, the situation was almost perfect. It had been a long time since she'd had a good fight without any complex emotional consequences, and the strong and agile Venom was a worthy – dare she say challenging – opponent, although hopefully not too challenging. The crowd of journalists was a good thing too, as there is nothing like a good front page headline for the pampering of one's ego.

Venom's sentiments were slightly different. _"We will destroy you!"_ he roared, as he hurled anything he could get his hands on at her.

"If I had a dollar for every time someone said that," muttered Buttercup as she rolled under the first formerly-car-now-projectile, straddled the second and caught the third above her head. She then catapulted it back at Venom with all her might, and scored a direct hit. The car landed on top of him, and suddenly all was still.

Buttercup approached cautiously, but not cautiously enough as it turned out, because Venom ripped his way through the car and grabbed her by the ankle, swinging the puff into his incoming fist before hurling her away. Buttercup tasted her own blood, before steadying herself, and unleashing a wave of blasts in his direction.

Venom dogged the majority of them, but not the follow but wave of Buttercups fists. Normally, one of the puff's blows would send any villain flying away with ease, but Venom's huge frame absorbed most of the force of Buttercup's blows, which meant that she could hammer him for a good amount of time. This way she was able to inflict a decent amount of damage before he was able to coordinate a defence.

It came in the form of his huge arm swinging towards her. Buttercup saw it and endeavoured to halt this attack be catching the arm. It was not a clever move; Venom turned out to be at least a match for her strength for strength, and scoped the green puff into the air before slamming her into the ground at his feet. Buttercup looked up at his huge tongue from within the creator, before smiling.

Venom was soon hurtling away into a wall, but he landed on his feet and through a large section of brick work back. Buttercup was just scrambling back to her feet, so had little chance to avoid it. The bricks slammed at high speed into her jaw, sending her back to the floor. She pushed her self back up, as Venom lumbered towards her at high speed, roaring with anger and aggression.

This would have been enough to install fear in most superheroes, especially considering that Buttercup now had a serious facial wound. But being Buttercup, see had no fear – well, none worth listening to anyway. But there was something else more important to her; when Venom was charging, his neck was hopelessly exposed.

"Your mine," she muttered, and as Venom swung his hand in to the air to splat her, Buttercup recoiled with all her strength, and prepared to clobber him.

She never got that far, for suddenly, there was a flash, and the air around went cool. Something else felt different too, almost as if there was a strange powerful presence. And then in a streak of blue flame, Bubbles materialised between Buttercup and Venom. Buttercup just managed to stop her hand in time, an inch from Bubbles' head.

"Bubbles, what the hell are you doing?" she spluttered. Bubbles glanced at her with a deriding look, and then glanced at the blood on her shoulder, before looking back at Buttercup.

"I though you could use some help sis," she said in her old cheery voice, before dropping a tone, "since he's kicking your arse."

"He is not kicking my arse! I…" Buttercup stopped, because something had just occurred to her. Venom had been in striking distance for a good minute now, so why hadn't he? The reason was because Bubbles had caught the hand that Venom was striking with. Without looking. And now she was crushing it.

Venom roared with pain, and Bubbles turned her attention away from her sister back to him. She kicked him hard in the neck, her foot almost ripping through it, before punching him high into the air. Before Venom could stop him self from rising upwards, Bubbles had shot past him in a flame of blue light and was waiting at the top of his trajectory. Not perturbed, the ever aggressive Venom tried to hit her and did make contact, but it seemed like he'd punched solid concrete. Bubbles didn't even blink, and instead moved her hands like lightning, shattering every single one of Venom's limbs, be for prodding him back into the ground. The huge monster collapsed in a heap, and the police quickly surrounded him.

Bubbles landed near the ago Buttercup, having not even broken a sweat. "Consider your self surplus to requirements," she said sweetly and cuttingly, before sauntering off to talk to the rapidly assembling journalists, leaving her sister seething.

* * *

As I said, the first chapter's always short. Please review and ask questions, especially if you're new. Thanks! 


	3. A Friendly Discussion

Okay, here's a change of policy. I don't have the time right now to write long chapters, so I am going to right this story in lots of short ones, maybe only one seen wrong. I should therefore be able to update everyday, and keep the story rolling. I hope no one minds this tactic, if you do, please say.

It may also be worth keeping an eye of which chapter you are personally on, so you don't get confused. Okay? If you have any comment, sent me a review. Thanks.

**3. A Friendly Discussion**

Blossom looked up over the newspaper. "It's good publicity," she said to Bubbles. "That'll please Sonic, we can really do with all the positive press time we can get."

Bubbles nodded. "I was pretty pleased with it. I think they caught my good side." She spun her finger on Blossom's desk. "So how is Sonic at the moment?"

"Fairly grumpy," Blossom sighed. "The Government is on his – our – back about the escaped super villains. They want them back inside a lot quicker than we can track them down. It's difficult… and being Sonic he's taking it out on the staff. And me."

"Well, MJ did break them out," Bubbles reminded.

"Yeah," said Blossom. She wasn't too keen to speak on that subject. "Speaking about MJ, she was annoyed that I didn't tell her that Venom was demanding Spider-man. She seemed to think that she could have filled in."

Bubbles chuckled, and leaned across the desk "She probably could have. You shouldn't hold on to her so much. Let go and watch her flourish."

"She's six Bubbles."

"So were we. The Professor never minded."

"Then when I get a Science degree I'll reconsider," said Blossom bluntly. "For now, she's staying safe and at home, when she's not in school of course."

Just then, the door flew open. "Blossom, have you…" Buttercup started, before spotting Bubbles. "Oh," she said, and stopped. Bubbles looked at her intensely.

"I'll go," she said to Blossom, but her eyes didn't leave Buttercup for a moment.

"Yes that might be…"

"Oh no," said Buttercup firmly. "It's going to happen at some point so lets have it out now! There is something different about you, and I want to know what!"

Bubbles looked at her calmly. "The only difference is that you can't handle me any more," she said calmly. "I made the right decision and you…"

"You killed innocent children!" Buttercup shouted. Blossom sighed, but she was ignored.

"It was an army of evil clones created to take over the world by Mojo Jojo," Bubbles elaborated. "They may have been innocent at the moment of death, but they wouldn't have been moments latter. It was a pre-emptive strike."

"It was murder!"

Bubbles laughed, and turned to Blossom. "You'll have to excuse her," she said deridingly, "It appears that the death of her unborn child had more of an affect on her then we previously thought. Has she had therapy for it?"

Buttercup wasn't going to stand for that, and as an instinctive reaction she swung a fist at Bubbles. The later puff's hand moved like lightning, and caught buttercup's hand, stopping it with ease. "See?" she said.

Livid, Buttercup lowered her hand back to her side, and turned to Blossom. "You agree with me don't you!" she said. Blossom paused; part of her really wished she didn't have to do this. But it was a very small part of her; she was really chuffed that they still looked up to her that much. She was also vaguely aware that Bubbles was looking at her, in a strange was. It was almost as if she could feel it…

"Buttercup," Blossom said calmly. "If there is a person in a room standing over a button that will destroy the world, and they are about to press it, is it right to kill them? Even if they haven't done anything wrong before?" Buttercup gaped and paused, Blossom had made her self clear in a way that she hadn't expected. Bubbles nodded knowingly to Blossom, before turning on her heal and leaving, without so much as a second glance at Buttercup. The Green puff waited till she'd gone before turning on Blossom.

"How could you give that answer?" she demanded. "You can see that there's something wrong with her? Why don't you act on it?"

"There's nothing wrong with Bubbles," said Blossom simply, "but there's something wrong with you."

"ME?"

"Yes, you. Your emotions have been shot by all this, and it's beginning to affect your judgment. I don't blame you for it," she said more gently, "you've always been someone that puts their heart and soul into your life and work and it's something to be proud of. It's what made you such a brilliant fighter. But sometimes it's better to isolate your self from those things. Bubbles made a cold rational decision and she was right. Let it go."

"Are you listening to your self?" Buttercup screamed angrily, but then she stopped. "Or are you thinking for your self?" She started studying Blossom intently, and then looked at a picture on her desk of Blossom with her family for comparison. Blossom shifted uncomfortably.

"Are you paranoid or something?" she asked nervously, but her sister was now satisfied with her observations.

"Oh nothing," she said, "I just never knew the whites of your eyes were blue." Blossom jumped, and glanced in a mirror. She saw it for a moment, before it faded away. Then she felt woozy.

"What was that about?" she asked. Buttercup scowled suspiciously.

"Do you remember what you said," she asked. Blossom thought back through her last few sentences. One line jumped out at her.

"I said that Bubbles made a cold rational decision," she said, slightly startled. "That's not like her at all!"

"That's my point," Buttercup said, "I mean, Bubbles has always been sweet and cheerful and reacts on her feelings rather then the evidence. Cold and rational are two words you wouldn't use to describe her."

Blossom nodded. "You could use them for…" she paused. "Well, none of us really. Not all the time anyway. Why should Bubbles have developed such a character trait now?"

"And it's the physical difference too!" said Buttercup. "I mean, she's stronger, faster and more powerful then ever before, and she looks like she'd nineteen again." She pulled on her flabby bits to emphasise the last point.

"Well she has spent a lot of time in the training rooms downstairs recently," Blossom pondered, as her own hand went involuntarily to her midriff (having two kids does nothing for your figure.) "But do I detect a slight tone of jealousy?"

Buttercup snorted. "That's not important. The important thing is what happened to you when you started defending her? Was she controlling you?"

"Now that's paranoid," Blossom said, pointing at Buttercup, but she had a feeling that she might be in denial. "Well, I'm sure she wasn't consciously. It just sort of happened."

"Right," said Buttercup, "get her down to the labs and make them run some tests. She if there is something wrong with her. You have the power."

Blossom looked at the phone on her desk, and then nodded. "I'll get her down there first thing tomorrow. I'll tell her that we just want to see why's she's performing so well at the moment. That'll sort it."

"Great," said Buttercup, and she left. The SSR science tests were notoriously unpleasant. Buttercup was sure that even if it didn't find anything, it would serve Bubbles right for killing those clones… and for stealing her publicity of course.

Okay, please review. Thanks.


	4. Butch's Search

Okay, continuing my new policy, here we go with the next seen.

**4.Butch's Search**

The fresh air punctuated up Butch's throat. Okay, fresh wasn't exactly the right word. Maybe "stagnant" would be a better word to describe the smelly, downtown atmosphere. He took a deep breath. Why did he have to do this on his day off? He knew why, but he still wanted the question answering.

Earlier in the week, a rather angry Sonic had briefed all the members of the SSR about the government policy on the recapture of the escaped villains. It wasn't a pleasant experience for any of the members of the SSR, mainly due to Sonic's absolutely foul mood. Butch suspected that the powers that be above him were putting the pressure on him remorselessly to clean up the mess, and he was quite naturally attempting to shift it onto his staff.

So after the usually speedy Hedgehog had spent an entire hour lecturing them on the situation generally, he'd processed on to informing them on policies relating to individual mutants. Butch had been drifting off for a long time by then in the uncomfortably hot room, but when Sonic set up the fifteenth side, he'd frozen solid.

"This," Sonic had said, pointing to a picture, "is an extremely dangerous creature. Although it may appear to be child like and innocent, it is actually an insane, murderous monster, and it must be captured. Dead or alive." The picture had been an artists (probably Bubbles') impression of SP.

As more details of SP's powers had leaked out to the other heroes, Butch had become more and more concerned. A typical conversation went like this.

"She doesn't sound too hard."

"Yeah, and they're offering a large reward for her."

"I could really do with that, and the opportunity to be in Sonic's good books for a while."

"But if she is like Spider-man, she'll be pretty quick."

"Then we'll have to hit her hard first, to stop her getting away…"

Butch generally superficially joined in with these discussions in a "ladish" sort of way; he had a reputation to upkeep. But inside he was worried for the child, technically his child.

A discussion with Buttercup had also put him in difficulty. Rather stupidly, he'd asked Buttercup what had caused her to let him back into the marital bed.

"Are you no longer upset that I lied to you?" he'd blurted out idiotically. Buttercup had just smiled at him.

"I'm still annoyed," she'd said, "but your defence for SP reminded me of the caring man I married. And the scuffle with Boomer and Bubbles afterwards reminded me of your toughness too."

Butch himself couldn't actually remember spending much time showing off his caring side to Buttercup before they married, but he was quite pleased with the tough bit. However now he was in a hole. He had to save SP from his fellow heroes, to stay in Buttercup's affections. That was his reason, and he was sticking to it.

But in his heart he knew it wasn't true. He wasn't a young, fit career criminal anymore. He was thirty three, tired, slightly fat and mellowing. He drove an SUV, he owned a dinner suit and last week he'd brought a broadsheet newspaper.

And as he thought about SP, he remembered her smile, her innocence, and just her presence. She just felt like his child. And he felt ready to be a farther.

And he'd be dammed if one of those idiots in tights were going to take her away from him. Not even Sonic. So now he had to find her before someone else did. Or worse she hurt someone again… or Bubbles got her.

The major problem was, he had no idea where to start looking. No one had any idea. They were fairly sure that she was in the city, as there had been a couple of sightings, but it was just like trying to find MJ when she'd gone missing. If she had no objective, no fixed location, it was very difficult to track her down.

There were some clues though. Butch was standing over one now. It was a pigeon skeleton, striped of its flesh. This was a typical sign of a Spider-puff feeding; Blossom had informed him that she and Eddy had often found a rather sheepish MJ in the garden surrounded by them.

But unless MJ had been to this rather run down neighbourhood alone, then it wasn't her. It had to be SP. And the acid on the bones were fresh. She was close.

Butch nodded to himself, and then looked around for somewhere dark and dank, the sort of places Spiders like. The perfect place was nearby, a collection of bins in a nearby dark alley. Carefully, he approached. Suddenly, he heard rustling in the bins. His heart missed a beat. Maybe, just maybe…

As quick as a flash, he rocketed over to the bins, and pulled the lid off. A cat jumped out via his face, and sprinted away. The Green Ruff threw the lid away, in disgust.

"BUGER IT!" he shouted, and he kicked the bin flying. It rattled off a wall, leaving a sizable hole, before falling over. As the echoes dyed away, Butch's anger cooled. She'd probably sensed him coming. If she could fly and web swing like MJ, she'd be miles away by now. With a heavy sigh, he decided to go check out the local orphanages again. What else could he do?

Okay, I said they'd be short. Still, I hoped you'd enjoyed it. Okay, please review and I'll try to update soon. Thanks!


	5. The True Change

Here's the next scene, right on schedule. If you haven't seen Butch yet in this story, then you need to check back to chapter four. 

**5. The True Change**

The light of the full moon glimmered through he slightly open curtains. Bubbles stirred slightly, and removed her arm form around her snoozing husband. Slipping out of her bed, she wondered over to the bathroom. She didn't bother turning a light on, or covering her nakedness. The moonlight and her own blue glow was enough, and besides, she felt great. What was Buttercup on about, paranoid fool. There was nothing wrong with her; she'd just succeed with a bit of self improvement. All that time in the gym and fight training was paying off, and her lazy sister was just jealous.

But as she ran a basin of water, she caught a look at herself in the mirror. The blue glow in her eyes was keener, and brighter then normal. Her body was toned and taught. Her hair was longer and silky, and her other areas were… well you get the picture. And suddenly, it scared her. What she was looking at was not her, not even a younger version of her. It was something else, something stronger. Maybe she was different.

She splashed her face, and suddenly heard a voice. "Why are you worried Bubbles? Why do you fear your true self?" Bubbles looked up sharply. In the mirror in front of her, was an image of her.

Well, it appeared to be her. But it was different. If Bubbles thought that her current self was an over improvement, then the one in the mirror was an ultimate improvement. She appeared almost perfect; strong yet no deformed, beautiful and confident, sexy but not smutty. The last one was a surprise, given that although the image had clothes on, she almost might as well not have. She was smiling.

Bubbles looked down at her self to check it wasn't a reflection, before swinging her eyes back up. "What are you?" she asked timidly.

"You haven't answered my question," said the image. "Why do you fear you're self"

Bubbles was shaking slightly. Everything felt wrong. "You're not me," she said with almost no conviction. You're a crazy monster something"

The image laughed. "No, I'm the true you. I'm what you should be"

"What"

"You are but a shadow of your true self, a pathetic specimen of me. But recently you have begun to approach your true form, and so I have been able to reveal myself"

"I don't get it," said Bubbles nervously.

"Bubbles, you are nothing but Chaos energy, that transformed a random heap of sugar spice and everything nice into you and your sisters. Chaos Energy is a strange substance, and it was able to transform you into what was expected; a human. But you are not human; you are just a mimic of human form. You age yourself as a human would, you act as a human would, and you have morals as a human would. One day you would have died as a human would. But not anymore, not since you absorbed the emerald. It has released your true power for controlling by your own mind. You can do anything, and be anything"

"Anything?" Bubbles was still shaking. The image nodded.

"Anything! Subconsciously you have already been pulling details out of people's minds, controlling them and manipulating them, not to mention your vastly increased strength and power. But once you know your true power, the possibilities are almost endless. All you have to do is believe in yourself"

Bubbles shook her head. "No," she said defiantly, "you're just Him trying manipulating me or something!" The image sighed.

"Just try it," she said. "Something simple, like… an object, think of any object at all. And Focus"  
Bubbles shifted. "Alright," she said. Bubbles focus for a moment, and held out her hand in front of her. Nothing happened for a moment, and then suddenly, energy bolts crackled off her fingers, before they wrapped around each other in a blinding flash. Bubbles gapped as Octi materialised in her hand. A tear ran down her check as she gently fingered her treasured childhood possession. "I can do anything," she whispered. "All I need is an opportunity"

She glanced briefly at the mirror, but the image had gone. Bubbles knew why, it wasn't need anymore. It had been her. Bubbles left the bathroom, and swept downstairs to the kitchen. She poured her self a glass of water, and put it down on the side. Then, with a flash of sparks and waves of energy from her hair, a second, identical glass materialised next to it. Bubbles smiled to her self again. She was…

Something wasn't right again, but it wasn't her. Bubbles swung round and grabbed someone by the neck, smashing them against the wall. Then she looked to she who it was, and gritted her teeth. "I didn't know you were quite this much of a pervert Brick," she said.

Brick growled (trying not to look at Bubbles' nude body). He tried to put her hand on her hands and release himself, but it went straight through. And straight through her chest too. "Hang on," he said, "how you are able to touch me, but I not touch you. And how come you can see me"

Bubbles laughed. "You are dead and I'm the most powerful thing on the earth! So how's death"

Brick looked from sided to side, and decided to play along. "A bit depressing," he said, looking in Bubbles' bright blue eyes. Suddenly, all he could see was the eyes, sucking at his soul and his mind. Desperately, he tried to pull away, but Bubbles put her other hand up and turned his head back towards her. She smiled.

"So, you're spying on me." She smiled. "Worried that I'm going to go crazy or something"

"How do you know that"

"For someone so worried about my power, you seem to underestimate it a lot." She threw his away, and Brick flew through a wall into the lounge. Bubbles materialized in front of him in a flash of blue light, smiling evilly. "Okay Brick, here's the deal. You go back to where ever you came from, and I won't hurt you. Or tell Blossom that you were looking at me"

Brick spat. "Do your worse bitch! Blossom won't believe you and you can't hurt me that much. I've already experienced the pain of death"

Bubbles smiled. "You have no idea," she said sweetly, and then Blue bolts from all over her body ripped into Brick. As he screamed in pain, Bubbles voice pieced through his wails. "Blossom will believe what I tell her! They all will do what I tell her! And you WILL BE GONE"

Brick disappeared in a flash of light, and Bubbles breathed calmly, and flicked a piece of sweat off her shoulder. The energy still crackled of her, and she chuckled. Then the blue energy engulfed Bubbles herself, and with a slow wail, she started to change herself…

* * *

Roland was reading a book in the lounge. There was a thud behind him, and a soft moan. With a sigh, the Austrian put the book down, and with out looking round, set off for the bathroom and the medicine cabinet, with just a passing word to his roommate:  
"Told you so."

* * *

Okay, thanks for reading, and please review. Thanks. 


	6. So Now What?

Okay, here is Chapter **6**. Make sure you've read Chapter **4 **and **5** first. If you are confused by anything, do feel free to ask.

**6. So Now What?**

Six year old children are generally very impatient, and Blossom's daughter MJ was not the exception that proved this rule. _(If I've got MJ's age wrong again, please correct me.) _The moon illuminated the sky behind her as she landed on her windowsill, muttering to herself.

"There has to be a better way of doing this," she mumbled, (partly so she didn't wake anyone up), "I mean, that's the third time this week that I haven't come across anything!" It was beginning to occur to the young Spider-puff, that just doing a random sweep of the city, although a traditional superhero method, wasn't a very efficient way of finding criminals. Well, not when there's only one of you in any case. She was sure her Mum had never mentioned that problem. MJ briefly wondered how she'd dealt with the problem.

It was very brief. "Hello MJ," said a voice behind her, "long time no see."

MJ whipped around (now wondering why no one in these stories every arrived in a conversation from the front.) She relaxed when she saw who it was. "Heloo Uncle Brick," she said happily and politely, "How are you?"

Brick laughed. "Blossom was always going to give you good manners," he said, before gingerly sitting on the bed. At this point, his face was illuminated slightly, and MJ could see that it was badly burnt.

"What happened to your face?" she asked. Brick paused.

"Well, I was going to do a round of small talk first, but to answer that question I'll get right to the point: I need you to follow your Aunty Bubbles, and tell me everything she does."

MJ blinked. "That doesn't explain about your face," she said.

"Well I was following her, and she caught me."

"How? Can she see you too?"

"Apparently," said Brick coldly. "She can also inflict pain on me too. So I can't keep following her," he smiled at MJ, "But I suspect you might have more success as a spy then a superhero."

"Hey! I caught one guy this week!"

"But if you do this for me you could save the entire world."

MJ was still confused. "How is Aunty Bubbles a threat to the world?" she asked.

"It's a long story," said Brick vaguely, "but she hurt me so she can't be good for it."

"Mum says you used to be a super villain," MJ said, "maybe she thought you were spying on her in a bad way."

"Okay then, if you don't want to help," Brick sighed in an over the top manor, "maybe I'll try and find SP, I'm sure she'd help me."

MJ jumped. "But she's evil," she protested. Brick smiled.

"So am I… apparently." MJ lowered her head.

"Okay, I'll help."

"Excellent," Brick said. "But whatever you do, don't let her see you. I'll meat you back here tomorrow evening and we'll discuss your findings."

* * *

Boomer stirred, and woke up. Sunlight was completely filling the room, and he suddenly realised that it couldn't possible be seven o'clock. He swung round and looked at the clock; but he was wrong. It was 7:12.

Boomer pulled himself up, groaning and stretching as he did. Bubbles entered the room. "So you're up?" she said.

"Ye…" Boomer stopped when he saw Bubbles. She was fully dressed in her usual uniform, but something was different; mainly that she was mind-blowingly beautiful. This was difficult for Boomer, because he'd already thought of Bubbles as the most beautiful being on the planet. And now…

Eventually, he driffed back into the real world. "You look, well, fantastic," he said. "Have you lost weight or something?"

Bubbles smiled and dipped her head slightly. "Yes," she said, playing with her longer hair a bit, "I don't think I look too bad right now, do I?"

Boomer shook his head so hard it nearly came off. "No, you look like… like a goddess," he said. Bubbles laughed.

"I don't know about that," she said, "but I do feel like I could conquer the world." She turned to leave, and as she did, Boomer watched her arse all the way.

"Oh I have no doubt," he said. Then he thought about Breakfast.

* * *

Bubbles opened the door to Blossom's office. "You wanted to see me?" she said. Blossom looked up, and then nodded.

"Yes, I just wanted to…" she stopped. Bubbles was studying her acutely, in that strange new way. What she was actually doing was studying Blossom's mind, checking to see if she'd been contacted by Brick in anyway. She'd just concluded that she hadn't, when Blossom snapped.

"Stop that!" she said. Bubbles looked up, some of the glow in her eyes faded.

"What?" she said in a surprisingly innocent tone.

"That look, it freaks me out."

"Okay, so what do you want to see me about?"

"Ah, yes," Blossom regained her composure. "I've arranged some tests for you in the lab. It's just a bunch of general test. Nothing special."

"Okay," said Bubbles. "Why?"

"It's just a standard thing we do when someone shows such a sharp increase in power and strength. It allows us to possibly re-classify them, and so we know how best to distribute our resources in the event of a major catastrophe." But as Blossom said all this, she was dimly aware that Bubbles didn't appear to be listening. She had that look on again, almost as if the real reason was written on her forehead.

"I see," Bubbles said once she had finished. Blossom squirmed and hoped she didn't.

"Great," she said. "There ready for you now."

Once Bubbles had closed Blossom's door, she considered her options carefully. Blossom had semi-lied to her; she and Buttercup wanted to know why she was so much better then them. Conniving jealous Bitches, she thought. If they wanted to know they could just ask.

Why did she take this abuse from them, she wondered. Ever since she'd been a kid they'd seen her as an easy target to take there aggression out on. But now she was stronger then them, she didn't have to take it anymore. In fact, she could blast Blossom and her office to hell right now…

After a moments thought though, she lowered her hand. What was the point? Blossom and Buttercup may be annoying and now insignificant power wise, but truth be told, she loved both of them. Why should that change just because she was so powerful?

Then another worrying question occurred to her; what could she actually do with her new power. Short of making her life ridiculously easy, very little legal things. But she wasn't ready to be a super villain just yet. So now what?

I wait, Bubbles thought. Given time an opportunity will occur. And then I'll be able to show them what I can do. Whatever, the tests that they were about to perform, had to prove nothing.

* * *

Okay, sorryI'm a day late. Please review, and make sure you've read all the chapters. Thanks! 


	7. Happy Days

Okay, first, make sure that you HAVE read all previous chapters (sorry to keep going on about this, but I'm trying to not confuse as many people as possible)

Secondly, I'd like to credit my brother mg34 (who co-wrote "Parallel Lives" for those who remember) for the first two paragraphs. Enjoy!

**

* * *

7. Happy Days**

This was a good time to be a super villain. Thanks to the huge numbers of them that had escaped from prison the previous week, there was now an overflow of criminals, running the police and superheroes ragged. With the authorities so busy a cunning villain could get away with murder, or at least robbery.

Or that was how the media portrayed it. In fact it was a very bad time to be a Super Villain. Because, as with all government departments, when they have been publicly embarrassed the SSR quadruple there efforts to catch ever criminal they can.

As a result many more Super Villains were caught and publicly beaten to a pulp in order to restore public confidence. They were then thrown in a dark damp jail with nothing to do other then develop an unhealthy hatred for the super hero (or heroes) that put them there. In fact the wise Super Villain (not that there are many of those) knows that it is much safer to commit a crime just after a big superhero success, such as saving the world from a psychopathic Android who had intended to humiliate them at a fighting tournament or an evil villain with a laser death ray. Then the SSR are so pleased with themselves that they tend not to worry about the guy with the shock gloves robbing a bank.

This was, however a good time to be a crime lord. Firstly because there was lots of cheap labour available on the market, and secondly, because the heroes are all far too busy beating up that cheep labour to worry about what a crime lord was doing. Of course the fraud squad still did, but it wasn't there job to keep an eye out for potential attempts at world domination.

Hence, Mr. L. Luthor was browsing through a plan for such an attempt in relative peace. He flicked through the pages distractedly. Maybe, just maybe, this was the plan that would finally allow him to fulfil his dream of world domination.

It wasn't his first dream though. Luthor had been at something of a loose end ever since Superman had died. Unable to completely shift his anger and hatred on to someone else, he'd dabbled for a while with trying to kill Superman's closest friends and allies, but could never summon up enough enthusiasm to complete the task, (well, that was his excuse and he was sticking to it.)

But this was a good plan. A very good plan. It was the perfect chance for him to not only take over the world, but also a chance for him to gain revenge on the person that had robbed him of his life's ambition.

He pressed the intercom and contacted his assistant. "We have found this pyramid right?" he asked.

"Yes Mr. Luthor, some explores found it last month, and our mercenaries secured it this morning."

"The explores?"

"Disposed of sir."

"Good. Tell the mercenaries that I'll pay them double for this." Of course he wouldn't, but be the time they'd realised it would be far too late. "And put me through to Rhino," he added. "I have a job for him."

* * *

Bubbles arrived in the science department. "I'm here for some standard tests," she said to Gohan. The sayain looked up.

"Really? Well you're not on my list." He scratched his head. "Have I got the wrong day again?" he moaned.

"No Gohan," said the Professor from next door, "she's booked in with me."

As Gohan acknowledged this and directed Bubbles through, Bubbles smiled, actually and mentally. So Blossom had put her with her "dad." Sign of weakness, she thought. That could be used somewhere. She was also aware that Gohan took longer then expected to look away from her again. She really did have power…

"Hi Professor," she said cheerfully, "how's it going."

"Pretty well," he coughed. "My backs got worse but other then that, its fine. You look well."

"Thanks, I feel well," Bubbles said. "I suppose that's why they want me tested. People feeling wellaroundhereare very rare."

The Professor laughed. "Yes, I suppose so. Right, let me just get your file." He bent down into a cabinet, not a pain free activity for someone his age, and started searching.

Quick as a flash, Bubbles shot blue blots out of her self and into all the near be equipment. Immediately, she gained complete control of the lot. Her sisters weren't going to get anything from these tests, except from confirmation that she was now better then them. But no idea of by how much.

She glanced back at the Professor, who was still struggling in the cabinet. She took pity on him. "Here, let me help you," she whisper, and a blue blot shot into his back. He immediately stood back up again.

"Here it is," he said, and walked back to his chair. "Now let start these test…" he stopped as he sat down. "My back feels better," he said, amazed.

Bubbles looked. "Fancy that," she exclaimed. Imagine Blossom and Buttercup thinking her change was a bad thing…

* * *

Back at the Panner household, a few hours latter, Eddy was getting read for a nice relaxing afternoon. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the breeze was gentle and fresh and he was booked in for a round of golf with his wife and a few friends. What could be better?

He looked at his watch, and then called upstairs. "Come on Edward, we need to be at the course in half an hour!" No response. "Taking a long time over dressing won't change the clothes."

Eventually Edward appeared, with a face like a boggy peat, wearing clashing checked trousers and matching berry. "Can't I have some homework to get out of this?" Eddy chose to ignore that, and focus on his son's attire.

"Just be glad that it is not a red top with a black strip," he said. "Now come on."

Edward scooped up some golf clubs, and stomped to the door. "How come MJ got out of this?" he asked.

"She's with a friend from school," said Eddy calmly. Edward stopped.

"MJ doesn't have any friends," he said bluntly. "They all think she's a freak, and she doesn't seem to care… too much." Eddy paused and thought about this.

"Nah," he said, "she must have some friends. So quit moaning and come on!"

* * *

Bubbles was pleased with her results from the test. Sure, they showed an increase in her power, speed and strength, but not by as much as they actually had. They'd increased by an explainable amount.

Now she was supposed to be on patrol, but instead she was treating it as a gentle stroll. If there was trouble, she'd pick it up in the air. Besides, it was a beautiful day, and only four o'clock. Not many criminals would be active at this sort of time.

Then, she picked something up. "Well what do you know," she muttered, and stopped by a wall. Almost immediately, a huge creature burst through the wall in front of her. A huge man in a Rhino costume. He seemed to be made of nothing but muscle and that included inside his skull. He grunted irritably.

"I've been sent here to fetch you!" he said. Bubbles looked innocent.

"Who me?"

"Yes!"

"Who sent you?" Bubbles asked sweetly. The Rhino snorted aggressively.

"I don't have to answer to you!" he roared, and head down, he charged Bubbles, who simple stepped (by quickly) out of the way. Rhino smashed through some cars before coming to a stop. Swinging round, be roared and charged back, the ground shaking under his feet. It was clear that it would take something more solid then a mere building, or skinny girl. Bubbles stood her ground calmly, and soon the Rhino was nearly on top of her. He laughed and made a final thrust with all his strength. Bubbles grabbed his horn, and dug in. The concrete was ripped up, as she was driven back, but only for a few feet. Rhino realised he'd stopped and started to panic.

"What the hell?" he grunted. Bubbles smiled viciously, and hoisted him by the horn above her head. She let him flop and wiggle for a bit, before speaking firmly.

"I ask you again; who sent you?"

"Lex Luthor," Rhino whined.

"Why!"

"HE…He wants your help… I… he has a plan… he knows you power…don't hurt me…" Bubble's face changed. It relaxed. An opportunity…

However, a huge rhino running around the streets at four in the afternoon was not going to go unnoticed. Bubbles turned round slowly, to she Batman standing nearby. "Need a hand," he asked grimly. Bubbles considered, as Rhino sweated. Then she smiled again.

"No thanks," she said, and fired a blue beam from her eyes. It caught the surprised Bat off guard, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor. Bubbles lowered an equally surprised Rhino to the floor.

"What makes Luthor think that I wouldn't want to help him voluntarily?" she asked innocently with a hint of danger. "Why did he have to send the mindless muscle?"

Rhino blinked. "I… I…" he was still looking at Batman. Bubbles glanced back.

"He'll be fine," she said, "just with a bit of memory loose. Now stop gibbering and take me to Luthor."

Rhino decided not to say anything else and lead the way. Bubbles followed, as did someone else. MJ – in Spider-puff costume – had watched the whole thing. So, Brick was right, she thought, but why? What did Bubbles hope to gain from all this? If she was caught would Bubbles deal with her that ruthlessly? And why was a Marvel underling working for a DC comic's super villain?

* * *

Okay, please review. Thanks! 


	8. Decision Time

**8. Decision Time**

SP was ready to give up. She was tired, cold and hungry. She'd been living on the streets for a month now, and it was slowly draining her. The clothes that she wore were still the ones Mojo had put her in, and they were designed for speed and flexibility, not warmth. Her human instinct to look for clothing had been damaged, so she just shivered and tried to find dark corners.

The throw back from MJ's mind informed her that some homeless people survived on the ground, but it was no place for a six year old girl. So she stayed on the roof tops for as long as possible. As a spider this was possible, but it is colder up high, and more exposed.

Hence, SP needed to eat often. Her unnaturally high metabolism (the sort of thing that allowed MJ to sneak out at night and still be alert in the morning) needed more food anyway, plus the amount of energy required to keep her warm. Birds were her main food source, but sometimes they were too quick. Sometimes, there were none at all. In her moments of hunger, the only thing that kept her going was her hatred. But now, she was so weak, even that was fading. Her dead brothers and sisters would have found her useless anyway, she thought. She was no good to anyone. Mojo had been right to view her as a liability, and MJ was more deserving of the loving family she had.

SP sighed bitterly. The hunger ate away at her stomach. If she could just let go of her hatred, maybe she could die. Quietly.

As she closed her eyes slow and prepared to relax, an image flashed in her mind. The crazy blue puff, blowing up her fellow clones, her sisters, her brothers. The only ones who could ever have understood her. And Bubbles her self, showed no pitty, no remorse, just a hint of glee. She sat bolt upright, hissing and spitting. Bubbles would die before her, even if she died trying.

The heat of the moment died quickly, as she collapsed. Grapping at the air in front of her, she realised that she could not do it without help. But no one would help her. The sun burned down on her, and she felt her life seeping away. In desperation, she wailed quietly; "I need food…"

Out of the sunshine, something fluttered down. At first SP thought it was a vulture, hovering above her, waiting for her last breath. But instead, it turned out to be a pigeon. The stupid bird landed in front of her, and waddled into her reach. The spider-puff barely had time to thank what ever had helped her, before she dived forward, jamming the bird into her mouth. In one of those hazy moments of Spider control, feathers flew everywhere.

As she spat out the bones, SP wondered why she'd been sop lucky for once. MJ's memories informed her that maybe there was a reason for her to still be alive. Perhaps something was keeping her…

"Look there it is!" shouted a voice. SP's Spider-sense went mad, and she through her self forward. Whatever it was that had helped, it didn't want to make it that easy.

* * *

The Luthor building was huge and complicated, but it was no match for MJ's spider-sense combined with x-ray vision. Feeling like Solid Snake from that computer game Edward played on, she followed Bubbles through the air vents as she was guided to Lex. Eventually, Bubbles was brought into a huge airy office. Luthor was there, with a few "trusted" guards, but little more. From within her vent, MJ was appalled that someone as evil as him could live like this. Someone should do something about it.

Luthor smiled at Bubbles. "Hello my dear," he said oily. "I'm so glad you came especially of your own accord. May I offer you a seat?"

Bubbles smiled, and walked forward slightly, before taking a lone deliberate look around the office. She swayed her body slightly as she did, in a manor that "distracted" Luthor considerably. As Bubbles scanned around, she stopped suddenly, looking straight at MJ. The Spider Puff was fully aware that Bubbles could see through walls, and thus her. She froze. Bubbles paused for a while, and chuckled. Then she turned back to Luthor.

"I'd rather stand," she said sweetly. Luthor nodded.

"Very well," he said. "Now, I'm a busy man and I'm sure you are too," he pulled his eyes up from her chest, "so I'll cut to the chase. Are you aware of the power of Chaos energy?"

Bubbles smiled and tipped her head on one side. "Aware enough."

"Good," Luthor said. "For I have found something very interesting. There is a Pyramid in Mexico _(That's an Aztec pyramid, okay) _that is exactly the right dimensions inside to massively emphasise any Chaos Energy Frequency. So much so, that it could be used to affect the entire world. I can, and will use it, to change the world in a way to make me the ruler. All I need is enough energy, and something to control it. I can get the energy, but I need you to control it."

Bubbles nodded. "I see that, but I don't see why I would help you? This better be worth my while."

"Let me put it this way," said Luthor smugly. "I am not actually here. This is a hologram. I am already in Mexico, with a set of Emeralds that are currently being enthused with Chaos Energy from a supply of Chemical X. I also have a machine that _can _control it and if you do not help then I will use it. But it might not work, and the world could be destroyed. If you don't want that you will do as I say. Also," he said more sweetly, "you will be richly rewarded.

Bubbles looked intently at his image. MJ looked on in horror; would this lunatic really risk destroying the world? Would Bubbles really be brought in like that?

She would. "Give me your location, and I'll be there in an hour."

"Good," said Luthor. "Rhino, don't leave her side. If she tries anything at all, contact me immediately."

* * *

SP had needed a place to hide, and fast. As she fled from her pursuers, she was having to doge energy balls, cutting disks, sonic blasts and random objects flying at her. The pigeon hadn't been that filling and her spider-sense was overloaded. She couldn't last much longer.

Suddenly, she got a brake round a corner. An air vent! And she was out of site for a moment. SP through herself inside it, and scrambled away as quickly as possible. Initially, she could here the heroes searching for her outside, but as she headed inside, there voices became quieter. She was free.

SP paused in the vent to catch her breath, and glanced out through a grate. Suddenly, to her disbelief, she saw someone walking through the corridor below; Bubbles! SP crawled closer, her heart beating faster. The Spider sense was screaming a warning, but SP knew that she had a chance, and she wasn't going to let it slip.

With a wild scream, Sp catapulted her self out of the vent, at Bubbles. "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE YOU MURDERER!"

The last thought that got through her mind was that the blue puff did not look at all concerned…

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to work Mr. Luthor," said Lex's assistant nervously. "I mean, how do we know she won't betray us? How do we know that she won't use the energy to her own advantage?"

Luthor laughed. "You don't think that I haven't thought of that, do you?" he pulled out another devise. "This is a Chaos Energy manipulator too, but it's a very simple one. All it does is cancel out all the power in the area. If she does anything wrong, I'll use it to regain control of the situation."

"Are you sure that it can't be overridden?" asked the assistant.

"No. It can be overridden," admitted Lex, "but only by a device that's on the other side of the universe. So no need to worry there."

"But what about the Superheroes?"

"No worried there either. They are going to get a bit distracted…"

* * *

There was a blinding blue flash. MJ, who had still been following Bubbles through the vents, shielded her eyes. When the light cleared, she looked back.

Bubbles had a finger pointing at SP, who MJ was surprised to see still existed. Her clone was just standing there, eyes closed, as if in a trance. Rhino wasn't moving at all. Nor was MJ's watch. Bubbles looked at Sp for a moment, and then swung her eyes to MJ's position in the vent.

"Come out MJ," she said kindly, "she won't hurt you." MJ blinked, but did as she was told. She didn't drop her guard though.

"What have you done to her!" she asked. Not that she felt any sympathy for SP, but she was worried that Bubbles might do the same to her.

"Don't worry," said Bubbles, "I just put theses fools to sleep. They won't harm anyone, and it doesn't harm them." She looked at her hands in a relaxed way. "So, I assume that you saw my deal with Luthor." MJ nodded, so Bubbles continued. "Do you see that me agreeing to help him is the only way to save the world?"

MJ didn't. Or more to the point, hadn't. But… Bubbles had never done anything wrong before, had she? Surely she could trust her aunty. "I suppose so…" she said. Bubbles nodded.

"Good, because I need your help and we don't have much time. You must go find your mum and aunty Buttercup and tell them where I'm going, and that I need them to follow me immediately. Then you have to go and alert the rest of the SSR, okay?"

"Got it!" said MJ and she jumped out the nearest window. She had a job to do!

Bubbles watched her go with a smile. "Of course by the time they arrive it will be too late." He sisters would provide half of what see needed, and the other half would be brought be someone else. "Wake up SP," she commanded, "I have a job for you."

SP stirred and opened her eyes, but they no longer had purple irises, they no longer even had pupils. They were just solid blue…

* * *

Alright, please review. Thanks. 


	9. Golf Course Matters

Okay, I would like to start by offering my sincerest apologies for the delay. My University team has now ended, and I back at home, which means for various reasons (including, but not restricted to employment,) it is a lot hard for me to update, reply to reviews, and read other people's stories. Sorry, I'll try my best, but this might start to drag on a bit.

Anyway, I'd like to take the opportunity to publicly thank my loyal reviewers Madam Fist, CamillaMB and Sith Knight Galen for their support and advice (most of which is taken up on) and also Emily and the person who guessed Ratzenburger for there reviews.

Sorry about the length too.

Okay, enough blab from me. Enjoy!

**

* * *

9. Golf Course Matters**

At the golf course, Blossom and Buttercup trod over the rough at the side of the hole. They were supposed to be looking for Buttercup's ball, but although Blossom was, her sister seemed less interested.

"She must have rigged them!" she snorted.

"What makes you think that?" asked Blossom calmly.

"Come on Blossom, she's obviously more powerful then the results suggest!"

"Oh, so she's even stronger then you then the results suggest?"

"Ye… I mean no… well," Buttercup flustered, still too proud to actually admit that Bubbles would beat her in a fight. She retreated to safer ground. "You'd agree that she acting weird, right?"

Blossom nodded, "but that doesn't necessarily suggest a massive increase in power, does it. I mean Goku doesn't change much personality wise at Super Sayain."

"Yes, but Chaos Energy's evil, remember!"

Blossom said nothing, as she pushed up some turf with her foot. After what she'd done to Superman and in the fight against the Kryptonite prince, how could she forget?

"Listen Buttercup," she said eventually, "you make a very good case, but I don't want to come down too hard on Bubbles. For all we know these changes are genuinely down to hard work and perseverance on her part. I do accept your points though."

"And what are you going to do about it?" asked Buttercup tetchily.

Blossom considered the question for a moment. "Monitor the situation," she said. Buttercup snorted.

"I thought you had got your confidence back! It's not like you to wait before taking action!" Blossom was about to point out that that wasn't quite true, when they were interrupted.

"I've found the ball!" called Eddy. The two puffs wondered over (well, Buttercup stalked over.) Blossom watched as she studied the ball – it was clear that the green puff was seething with rage. Even Eddy had noticed.

"She seems upset," he whispered.

"FIVE ION!"

"I'd say," replied Blossom, as Edward chucked the club into Buttercup's out stretched hand. Almost immediately she thrashed at the ball, and missed it completely. At the second attempt she sent the ball flying in the general direction of the green, along with a good deal of turf.

"Right! Let's move!" she said, stomping of, as Eddy muttered something about why the hell he'd agreed to sponsor there membership. Blossom decided to ignore that one, instead focusing on Edward, how was moaning more obviously and obscenely about having to be outside.

"Cheer up Edward," she tried first, "The fresh air will do you good."

Edward glanced at her grumpily. "I have hay fever," he said.

"You'll survive," Blossom said, before switching into full mother mode: "And I'm not having you sitting inside watching television all summer when the weather's so nice outside."

"But it's the World Cup," protested Edward, "and we've got a really good chance of winning it this year."

"We got stuffed 3-0 by the Czech Republic yesterday," said Eddy. Edward blinked.

"Oh yes, sorry, forgot we were American. Dam."

The resulting temporary silence as everyone considered the impending defeat of their nation at football was broken by a new arrival.

"MUM!" called MJ as she flew in and landed among them breathlessly.

"MJ, aren't you supposed to be at a friend's house?"

The Spider-puff ignored the question and taking a deep breath, reeled off her story, like this:

"BubblesmadeadealwithLexLuthortousechasoenergytohelphimtakeovertheworldbutitsonlyatrickbyBubblesbecauseifshedidn'thelphimhe'ddoitanywayandmightdestroytheworldandthey'vegonetoapyramidinMexicoandBubbleswantsyoutwotocomeandhelpherdefeathimandithastobequickbecausehe'salreadyreadytodoitand…and…"

"I knew it!" said Buttercup triumphantly. Then she stopped. "What did she say?"

"I'll explain on the way," said Blossom, before turning to MJ. "Thank you MJ," she said, (making her daughter's chest swell with pride,) "you better go tell Sonic the same story. See you latter, come on Buttercup!"

The two Puffs shot off at full speed, and MJ was about to depart herself, when she was grabbed from behind.

"One moment," said Eddy firmly. "We'll take the car, because on the way, you can explain to me why you weren't at a friend's house!"

* * *

Okay, sorry about the length. I will do my up most to update soon. Please review. Thanks. 


	10. Hedgehogs and Spiders

I really ort to apologies for the terrible delay to the story, but I don't think it's going to get any better, so I probably shouldn't apologies for it and then do it again immediately. So sorry, but don't expect a rapid improvement.

Oh yes, and a character that has really been missing from this story is about to finally make an appearance. Enjoy!

**

* * *

10. Hedgehogs and Spiders**

In one of the many stone enclaves of the Floating (okay, Angel) Island, resided Knuckles' dinning room. And it was here, miles above the surface of the planet Mobious, that Shadow was sipping a glass of wine, and considering what had just been said.

"I still don't quite get why your going into big business Knuckles," he said, "I mean, don't you like the peacefulness here, and won't a factory churning out hundred of thousands of burgers ruin it?"

Knuckles shrugged. "Possibly, but I have to do something since the wars ended. And now Mobious is peaceful it's prosperous! So that means there's money to be made, and this Island doesn't' look after it's self!"

"But I thought the Chaos Emeralds protected it all?"

"No, that's just what we tell the tourists. Most of these buildings are on the verge of failing down, and when my people return, I want them to have more to return to then rubble."

"Anyway," added Tails, as Shadow studied the cracks in the ceiling dubiously, "I've designed the factory to be fully automated and almost completely sound proof, so the Island should still retain its peaceful ambiance."

The Black hedgehog sipped his wine again. "So why do you need me," he said, keen as ever to get to the point.

"Marketing!" said Knuckles enthusiastically, "I mean, we're going head to head with Mac Donald's and Burger King here, I need a strong campaign. Your image as a rebellious hero is just what Echidna Burger needs!"

"I lost that image years ago," said Shadow flippantly.

"Wrong," corrected Tails, "you never completely lose your image, that's why Clint Eastwood is still seen as a hard man, or Tony Blair a liar."

"Just think," said Knuckles, spanning his hands like any business man trying to make a sale, "Shadow, the mysterious hero. Where does he come from? Why does he fight? Whose side is he really on? The only certain thing is that he eats Echidna Burgers! It works on so many levels!"

"Like that you really don't want to know the history of the hero or the burger," muttered Tails darkly.

"All the mystery about me ended when my autobiography went platinum," Shadow said dismissively.

"Must you poke holes in everything!" Knuckles fumed. "Try the burger first!"

Shadow sighed and grabbed a Burger off the table and took a bite. His expression changed immediately. "This is brilliant!" he goggled, "you'll grind the competition into dust if it all tastes this good!"

"Actually," said Tails, "those came from Mark's and Spencer's. This is the Echidna one."

Shadow took a bite of this one, and considered the taste carefully and swallowed. "Knuckles, you amaze me."

"Really?"

"Yes, you've actually made something that taste _worse _then a Big Mac!"

"I'm not asking you to like the burger, just promote it," Knuckles began, but he was interrupted by an alarm.

"What's that?" shouted Shadow over the din. Knuckles stood up quickly.

"That's the Emerald alarm," he said, "someone's in there Chamber without my permission. And I hate trespassers!" He hurried off. Tails and Shadow shrugged, before downing there glasses and following.

Shadow arrived first, for obvious reasons. The Emeralds were all in place, orbiting the huge master one, and the place seemed quiet. Shadow glanced around the room for a moment, but he couldn't see anyone. That didn't mean he was alone however; being a professional, Shadow knew this. So he looked up.

On the ceiling, directly above him, was SP, hanging grimly on to a small grey emerald that Shadow hadn't seen before. It didn't bother him though. The kid was nearly all skin and bone anyway; she was hardly a threat, even if she was crawling on the ceiling.

"Come down here little kid," he said firmly. SP looked at him with the bright blue eyes, and crawled away from him. Shadow tutted and walked after her. Maybe if he was more polite. "Please?" he tried. SP looked at him intently, and Shadow forced a smile on to his face (an expression he didn't use often.) SP considered things for a moment, and jumped on to the floor, still looking at Shadow. "Good girl," he said. "Now, give me the Emerald."

When Tails and Knuckles arrived moments later, SP was biting into Shadow's wrist. Tails gasped, but Knuckles was more concerned about the Emerald.

"NOT THAT ONE!" he screamed, and dived forwards for it. SP looked up, and hurled the writhing Shadow away with uncharacteristic ease, before jumping over Knuckles. The echidna scoped him self up again, but had to dive back as SP took a snap at him. The young creatures lunge had however left her totally exposed to a well planted left hook right on the cheek, and that was what Knuckles duly delivered.

As she stumbled away, Tails took his chance to grab her around the neck, and jam the echidna burger into her mouth. The gagging SP had no choice but to swallow, and soon found her self projectile vomiting.

"Good work Tails," said Knuckles, as SP fell to her knees between them. "Now for the Emerald…" He reached out to take it, but suddenly, SP's entire body started glowing blue. The heat force Knuckles and Tails to step back, and then, in a blinding flash she and the grey emerald were gone.

"NOOO!" Screamed Knuckles, as Tails jumped up. "SHE'S GONE!"

"What's the problem Knuckles, she only took a small one."

"No, she took THAT one!" Knuckles gibbered, "She might as well have taken all of them! And she teleported away, she could be anywhere!"

Shadow, still clutching his bleeding wrist, walked up. "She went to earth," he said bitterly. "Now stop gabbling Knuckles and explain why that Emerald was so important!"

Knuckles, still shaking, looked at his feet. "Whoever holds the Grey Emerald controls all Chaos Energy," he said despondently.

* * *

SP reappeared in front of Bubbles, and immediately stuck out a hand. The Blue Puff took the Emerald from it. "Good work," she said, petting SP's head as if she was an animal. "Now, to Mexico."

* * *

Sonic was in a bad mood. This was partly because the government was still on his back about those missing villains, another part because someone had lost his favourite coffee mug, and partly because it was chapter 10 and he'd only just appeared. But it was mainly because of whom he was currently on the phone too.

"Don't blame me Shadow," he said angrily, "this creature is not under my control!"

"I thought that you had a better grip of things down there then that," said Shadow bitterly, "why else would those stupid people be so keen to keep you there?"

Sonic grimaced. "Surely you'd understand as much as anyone Shadow, that it's difficult to get what you want on Earth."

"Hey, I saved that wretched planet," Shadow flustered, "they should have been gracious enough to let us take back a murderer!"

"Humm, what an interesting relocation of events you have," Sonic said calmly. He was feeling a lot better now he'd put Shadow on the back foot.

"We're wasting time," the Black Hedgehog responded firmly. "What ever has that Emerald could be about to cause unimaginable Chaos!"

"Don't worry," said Sonic a lot more coolly then he felt, "I'll find it and have it in the post back to you before you can tie your shoelace."

"I don't trust you," said Shadow bluntly, "we'll borrow a porthole generator and be there in a few hours."

"Don't you dare come here…" Sonic started but the line went dead. "Fucking unt," he cursed vilely, before getting up and throwing open the door to his office. "BUTCH, GET YOUR ARSE IN HERE NOW!"

The Green Ruff arrived fairly promptly, with his brother. "What?" he said, immediately about to go on the defensive.

"Your little experiment with Mojo has found its way to steal something that it could use to destroy the universe. Is there anyway that we can track that stupid blue eyed freak down quickly?"

Butch considered it for a moment. "Blue eyed?" he said, "I thought they were purple?"

"Okay, so Shadows colour blind, I don't care, can you help?"

"I don't think so…" Butch started, but Sonic had already drifted out, as he'd just spotted some people running across the office towards him. He sighed.

"If you're looking for Blossom, it's too late, she's already gone."

"Yes, and we're here to tell you where," said Eddy indignantly. Before Sonic could respond, MJ started Babbling:

This is MJ's speech from the last chapter, with spaces, and a few adjustments: "Bubbles made a deal with Lex Luthor to use chaos energy to help him take over the world but its only a trick by Bubbles because if she didn't help him he'd do it anyway and might destroy the world and they've gone to a pyramid in Mexico and Bubbles wanted Blossom and Buttercup to come and help her defeat him and it has to be quick because he's already ready to do it and…and…"

"They've gone," finished Edward.

Sonic paused. "MJ, did you see SP when Bubbles told you this?"

"Yes, she'd just pacified her."

"WHAT," said Butch, "NO, SHE'LL KILL HER!"

"Calm down bro," said Boomer, "SP isn't that strong."

"That wasn't what I meant," Butch replied, but only Edward was listening. The others had been distracted by Eddy turning on the television.

"Do you mind?" said Sonic angrily, "we are sort of in the middle of a crisis here!"

"Yes," said Eddy quickly, "I was just looking at the news to see if anything had come on yet about it… and I want to see the World Cup scores." Sonic felt like screaming, as the score came across the ticker (France 1-1 Spain, HT), but before Eddy turned it off, the news item changed.

"_And a story just in, It has been announced that the SSR is currently holding a super weapon in its vaults that makes the bearer invincible. Details are still sketchy, but we believe they are looking after it on behalf of a wealthy benefactor. More on that after this…"_

"Is that true?" asked Boomer. Sonic shook his head.

"Lex Luthor owns that news channel," he said.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that every Super Villain in the country will be bearing down on us in the next half hour."

* * *

Okay, please review. I will try to be quicker, but be prepared for me to fail. Thanks! 


	11. Beginning of the End

Okay, just a quick note that some of you might want to check the previous chapter to see if you've read it, especially if you haven't met Sonic yet.

Oh yes, and although the new Superman flim is out in America, it hasn't been realeased in Britain yet. Therefore I haven't seen it, so Luthor may behave differently to the one in the film, okay?

**11. Beginning of the end**

Down in Mexico, (or up if you live in the southern hemisphere) Bubbles surveyed the pyramid, with Luthor hovering at her shoulder. He had a lot of mindless thugs with him too, all of which were bearing guns that were partially aimed at Bubbles. This didn't really bother her; she knew that she could obliterate them with little effort.

"Seems simple enough," she said at last.

"The chemical X is primed and inside," Luthor said matter-of-factly. "All we need you to do is to manipulate it to my desire." He smiled devilishly, "and I trust you understand the consequences of your failure to do so."

"You leave me with no choice," said Bubbles, rather too unconcernedly.

"I never leave someone _no_ choice," said Luthor derogatorily, "I just make sure that the right choice is obvious."

"I see," said Bubbles, with a small smile. She studied the pyramid again, more thoughtfully. "I think it will work better if I was inside," she said.

"Ah, we sealed it for safety," began Luthor, but before he got any further, Bubbles put we finger to her forehead and disappeared. The guards jumped, and Luthor cursed. "She must have gone inside!" he bellowed. "Why didn't anyone know that she could warp!"

"Because your contacts are lousy!" said a voice from above. Luthor (and most of his guards) swung their heads up to see Blossom and Buttercup floating above.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he bellowed.

"Yeah, what are we doing here?" asked Buttercup, who still didn't completely understand.

"The thing you like," said Blossom calmly.

"You mean beating the crap out of some random thugs?"

Blossom nodded. "After you," she said.

* * *

"They won't all come here surely," said Boomer, "I mean, I've worked with many super villains, and they aren't all that stupid."

"No," admitted Sonic, "but all those who aren't stupid enough to be fooled by the broadcast will realise that this is a great opportunity to group all the villains together and overwhelm us." Suddenly he smiled. "That works both ways though," he said slyly.

"What do you mean," asked Butch, but Sonic was already on his way to the phone. He snatched and dialled a number.

"Hello… Batman… Yes, listen there is about to me a mass attack on the SSR headquarters here, but I need to go away for a bit. Can you look after things here?... That's not important, it's complex. I can trust you not to hold back… Good." He put the phone down. "One last stand here and we'll have all those escaped convicts back inside before the day is over."

"But where are you going?" asked Butch.

"MJ, you said something about Mexico," Sonic said. MJ nodded so he continued, "I remember reading something in a book Knuckles got me for Christmas when he was in one of his spiteful moods." He ran into his office, (which Boomer noted was also Sonic's home,) and emerged with a leather bound volume entitled _"The History of Chaos Energy Across the Universe."_

He thumbed through it keenly. "Right," he said, "here it is, there is a pyramid on earth that will allow Chaos Energy to be amplified until the user can manipulate the entire universe. However, due to Chaos Energies natural evilness, no one but the most pure being can do this with out trying to change the universe to there benefit. Most beings would be blown apart by this amount of energy anyway." He closed the book.

"That's ridiculous," said Boomer, "Bubbles isn't evil."

"Oh really," said Butch, and he reminded them of the fate of Mojo's clones. "And she was the last person seen with SP, maybe she told her to steal the emerald. Or forced her to, the blue eyes see."

"You listen to Buttercup too much," scoffed Boomer.

"Assuming that Bubbles is powerful enough to survive the manipulation," said Sonic, "we need to get there quickly, just in case."

"Sure thing," said Boomer, "then you'll see Butch. I'm sure Bubbles has everything under control. Besides, if she was evil, why would she have got Blossom and Buttercup to help them?"

"Perhaps they are all evil," said Edward mischievously.

"Good point," said Sonic, "but less talk, more movement. We'll take one of the helicopters; it will give us more time to discuss the situation on the way." He gestured for Boomer and Butch to follow him, but got exactly nowhere before he was interrupted.

"Hey!" said Eddy, "you can't leave us here with every single super villain about to descend upon us! You know how much they… errr…. value family members as hostages."

Sonic angrily had to admit that the scheming human was right.

* * *

Brick had waited long enough for MJ and had decided to go find her. "I hope I haven't got her into trouble," he muttered to himself, "but she's smarter then that, isn't she." Katherine snorted unhelpfully below him, as she galloped across the sky.

Brick ignored her and reflected briefly, MJ was only six. Maybe she trusted Bubbles more then she trusted him. "I hope not," he said.

Still, with a little help from a call to directory enquiries, he tracked MJ down. Katherine pulled easily along side the chopper, and Brick jumped through the wall inside. HE ignored those that couldn't see him, and headed for the one person that could. "MJ, it's me," he said.

The Spider-puff didn't respond. "MJ," he said again. "Hello, I'm here!" Still she didn't react, and nothing changed when he did a dance in front of her. It was as if she was staring right through him, just like everyone else. "Now what's this about?" he wondered to no one in particular, not expecting a response. Hence he was surprised when he got one.

"Oh, I don't think well be having any of that."

"BUBBLES!" Brick whirled round furiously. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

"I'm in Mexico," her voice sounded, "but that's hardly a barrier to me speaking to you."

"Why can't MJ see me!"

"That's easy, I control SP, and the two of them share some sort of mental link, so I think we can guess the rest."

Brick snarled. "Why you manipulative bitc…"

"I wouldn't speak to me like that if I were you," Bubbles said, "or I'll make you pay. Understand?" Brick opened his mouth again, but suddenly, in a flash of blue, he disappeared in a wail of pain.

* * *

Okay, please review. Thanks. Oh yes, if you are totally confussed, then it's probably my bad story telling, so please ask and I will explain things further. 


	12. An Enforced Fresh Start

**12. An Enforced Fresh start**

"You know," said Buttercup as she lazily tossed away the last of the hired thugs, "I would have thought that someone like Luthor would have at least put up a bit of a better fight."

Blossom nodded. It had been an easy victory. Something told her that it was slightly too easy. She turned to Luthor. "Okay Lex," she said calmly, "tell me what the big plan is. You're not normally this sloppy."

Luthor, who had his back pressed up against a near by tree, smiled weakly. "Everyone has off days," he replied, laughing casually yet nervously. "I honestly didn't expect Bubbles to have time to contact you. It was planned to avoid that."

"You're an idiot then," said Buttercup smugly. "Now, tell us where Bubbles is, or…" She tailed off, as a light blue glow suddenly surrounded her and Blossom. Then, be for they'd even managed a "what the…?" the two Puffs disappeared.

Luthor looked around, and thought for a moment. Of course, he thought, Bubbles must be going on with her plan now, what ever it is. This didn't really bother Luthor, what bothered him was the unacceptability of his present situation. Franticly he gestured over to one of his more alert hired hands.

"Quickly now!" he said commandingly, "You must tie me to this tree before the next wave arrives. And make it look convincing."

* * *

Blossom and Buttercup reappeared in a huge cavernous stone room, with a ceiling that stretched far, far above them. There appeared to be a small hole at the very top. The floor, which was also stone, was lower at the edges, and in the centre there were some steps, leading up to a central altar. Statues round the outside showed strange liquidy creatures with bright green eyes. There was one entrance way, a fairly plain but large set of stone doors, but these looked almost unmovable. The room was surprisingly airy too, almost cold.

All these minor details however, paled into significance too a few small things. Firstly, the amount of energy in the room, soaring through it in multicoloured streams of energy. The entire place throbbed with it, and it all spiralled in to the centre, where it reached a small grey emerald, that was sat on the altar in a stand. From there, the energy was projected upwards into a huge glowing orb of pure energy, which was pulsating slowly. Blossom and Buttercup, who had been released into the room just above the floor, now landed on it, there eyes drawn to the centre of the energy. After staring at it for a few moments, they both slowly reached out to touch it.

"I wouldn't do that it I was you," said Bubbles. "It would probably tear you to pieces." They both swung round. It was Bubbles, but not as they knew her. With energy now crackling off her stunningly beautiful, perfectly proportioned body, and her eyes glowing bluer then ever, she looked invincible.

If this bothered Blossom, she didn't show it. "Ah, thank goodness we've found you Bubbles," she said relived. "Luthor's been stopped, so lets get out of here and go home."

Bubbles smiled a sort of sickly smile. "Yes, I thought you two could handle him," she said, but she didn't move. There was a small beam connecting her to the orb, Blossom realised.

"Come on Bubbles," said Buttercup irritably, "show us the way out of here so we can get home." Bubbles smiled again, and then walked round to the other side of the orb again, slowly but deliberately. Blossom and Buttercup exchanged glances, and the latter's muscles visibly tensed.

"You two ever wondered about faults in the universe?" Bubbles asked eventually. Blossom shrugged.

"Probably, but can't we discuses this somewhere where I'm not afraid of being vaporised by a surging energy stream!"

Bubbles laughed. "You used to be so curious Blossom," she said. "I know a sister of mine that would have wanted to study these streams." She bent one around her two sisters merely by looking at it, before returning it to its original position. "Maybe it's because you already know about the power of Chaos energy, or so you think. Why, when you lost your temper, it made you strong enough to kill the invincible Superman, and that's quite powerful enough for you." She shot her a piercing look with those bight eyes. "How little you know."

Blossom now joined her sister Buttercup in taking a more aggressive stance, but it was the green puff that spoke. "Okay Bubbles, we know your up to something, and like all evil bitches, you can't wait to tell everyone, so spill it!"

"What makes you think I'm evil," said Bubbles in that infuriatingly calm way, "but if you insist my dear Buttercup, I will tell you." she took a deep breath, and looked at the ceiling. "I've always thought the world was wrong, don't you know. All the suffering of poor innocent creatures. The nastiness, the meanness, the selfishness, and sometimes it makes you think; what if I could change it all, what if I could make a universe without faults?" she looked at the orb in the centre. "All the Chaos energy in the universe is being sucked in here by that emerald. I brought that here myself. You see, Luthor had a bit of Energy in here, but it's not really enough. Soon however, I will have enough here for my plan. For you see," she sniggered to herself, "if the energy in one small emerald could make my body perfect, surely all the energy could make a perfect universe. Once the orb has finished charging, I will use its limitless power my self, and it will be done."

Blossom didn't know whether to laugh, gape or cry. Fortunately, Buttercup was slightly quicker with a come back. "You prefect body is missing a bit of muscle and a lot of brain cells. ARE YOU NUTS?"

"Buttercups right," said Blossom as nicely as she could, "no mortal being could create a new universe. The world is not perfect, but if it was what would be the point of being human? We might as well all be hamsters!"

"It's not so much creating a new universe as building one over the top of the existing one," Bubbles said. "And it will happen. There will be no more suffering, murder, rape, crime and pain. All those who survive will live a life of happy and endless servitude to me."

"Those who survive?" asked Buttercup sickly. Bubbles shrugged.

"I am building over the universe," she said as if Buttercup was an idiot. "When you put a house on an ants nest not everyone survives. I suspect about one billion intelligent beings will make it."

Blossom nearly chocked. "But the worlds population is 6 billion!" she protested.

"Get with the picture Blossom, I said Universe, not world. There are about 300,000 Billion in the Universe. And of course, to guarantee everything works, they will all lose there free will. Ready for a live of servitude to me." She paused. "Or us?" she asked, slightly hopefully. Buttercup and Blossom didn't even need to look at each other.

"Bubbles you've flipped your lid!" Blossom bellowed. "Even I think we've had enough talk!" The two of them raced towards Bubbles at full speed, but just short of her, they stopped. Or were stopped. Blue energy, racing from Bubbles' body had surrounded the two of them, and she looked extremely angry.

"YOU TWO ALWAYS LOOKED DOWN ON ME AS INFERIOR," she said, her eyes losing there pupils and turning solid blue in a fit of rage. "WELL, NOW YOU TWO ARE NOT EVEN TERMITES TO ME!" She twitched slightly, and then the blue energy started fizzing and wiping around the two of them, threatening to tear them apart. As some deep cuts scythed across Blossom, and even deeper ones across the wriggling Buttercup (how was desperately trying to escape), a line of energy began to flow from each of them; pink from Blossom and green from Buttercup. They wafted into Bubbles, who regained her composer. She even smiled, as the two of them drop unconsciously into a corner of the room. "Maybe, when you wake up in my new universe, you two will reconsider my generous offer. And if Sonic thinks he and Butch can stop me, he has another thing coming." She glanced up at the orb. "Nothing can stop me now."

* * *

"Okay, let me get this straight," said Roland, who'd given up on his watching his television program. "Your Sister-in-law is going to destroy the universe and replace it with her own."

"Yes!" said Brick desperately.

"And you over heard Sonic say that only a completely pure person that is strong enough in Chaos energy can shut it off."

"YES!"

"And thus you need to get back to earth, in a way that allows you to interact with the living world, in order to stop her."

"FOR THE LAST TIME YES! I'M IN A BIT OF A HURRY HERE!"

Roland blinked. "Well, I don't think you're that pure, but good luck." He clicked the television back on for a moment, and laughed at a joke, before turning back to Brick, who hadn't moved. "What?" he asked.

"Firstly," said Brick irritably, "Charlie Sheen is not funny. And secondly," he shifted uneasily. "I was sort of expecting you to know a way out that I could use."

"Oh, so I'm just a public information burro, for ways out of the afterlife?"

"Well… you always seem to know a way."

Roland snorted. "Not this time. Fresh out of ideas." He looked at Brick's face. It was the mixture between crestfallen and 'I am going to punch you're face in' that made him feel uneasy. "Come on Brick," he said, "do you really think that the man upstairs, the boss of our boss, with really let the universe be destroyed by some stupid blond girl?"

"I'm not sure," said Brick, "but that horse race you watched earlier only had four riders in it." Roland thought for a moment.

"I'm make some calls," he said at last, exasperatedly.

"Thank you."

"After my show…"


	13. Forces Divided

**13. Forces Divided.**

The helicopter landed near the pyramid with a thud, and Sonic threw open the door.

"Okay, everyone out," he gestured. Boomer and Butch leapt out quickly, both driven by the natural brotherly instinct to prove the other one wrong. The others were rather more tentative.

"I thought I would sort of stay here," said Eddy nervously. "I mean I'd only get in the way." Edward nodded keenly beside him.

Sonic raised an eye brow. "Very well," he said, "come on MJ."

The young spider-puff, who had been scratching tentatively under her mask, looked round. "Err, I've sort of got a headache," she said sincerely.

"I said; come on MJ if you want to have a future as a Superhero and not an accountant!"

MJ thought about it, and then jumped out. Sonic looked at Eddy again. "Sure you're not coming?"

"No, me and Edward are staying right… HEY, come back here!" he shouted at his son, who was also getting out.

"I'm not letting MJ out of my sight," he said, "Mum would kill me."

"She may do that anyway," said a voice from under a tree. The group looked round.

"Oh look," said Butch snidely, "a clue."

Sonic nodded and made a beeline straight for the now tied up Luthor. He was surprised that Lex looked please to see him.

"Thank goodness you're here!" said the evil genius, "your puffs have gone mad!"

"What, all of them?" asked Eddy (who'd given up the fight to stay in the helicopter).

Luthor glanced at him derisively. "What's it to you?"

Sonic grabbed Luthor by the throat.

"Alright," he said aggressively, "tell us everything you know, or I'll use this rope for something other then tying you up!"

"Oh really," said Luthor dismissively, "I'm trying to help; there's no need to be rude!" Butch raised his fist threateningly, and Luthor wisely chose to stop stalling.

"That's ridiculous," said Boomer when he'd finished, "Bubbles would never…"

"Oh please stop it Boomer," said Butch irritably, "just except that you're blinded by your penis."

"Shut up Butch," said Boomer angrily, "it might just be possible that I know more about my wife then you do!"

Sonic snapped. "Arguing about it is just wasting time!" he said, "let's get inside and find out!"

Luthor went pale. "Your not going in there are you?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're not going in there are we?" asked Eddy more desperately. Sonic ignored them and walked towards the door.

"Turn Back! Turn Back!" wailed Luthor, but Sonic was already at the door. Butch and Boomer followed him in. Eddy stood there for a moment, before MJ took his hand.

"Come on Dad," she said, her headache having faded a bit, "let's go rescue mum!"

"Well, if you put it that way," said Eddy, who wasn't particularly keen about staying out side with a super villain anyway.

Luthor kept wailing until all of them had entered, and then calmly untied the knot in the ropes holding him. Standing up, he dusted him self down, and looked at his watch.

"Good," he said to himself, "everything is running on time."

* * *

Inside the centre of the pyramid, Bubbles had sensed there arrival. It didn't bother her too much, since Luthor's men had sealed up the entrance ways to the central room, so she was quiet safe. Also, she had a guard available.

"Ah," she said happily, "they brought the other one too." She chuckled. "Poor MJ is about to have the most terrible headache. Still, better safe then sorry." She glanced over at her sisters. They were still heaped up unconscious in the corner of the room. Blossom's hair had lost some of its orange shine - it was now a browner colour. Buttercup also seemed paler, and weaker. Bubbles laughed. Even if they did recover as quickly as they normally did, Blossom and Buttercup would find they no longer have any super powers with which to do anything about it. She could pop out for a moment, no problem.

* * *

The pyramid's corridors were narrow and twisty. Luthor's men had sealed up the direct entrance to the central room, so Sonic and co were looking for another way in. The hedgehog was leading the way from Butch and Boomer, who were scanning the walls with there X-ray vision for another way through. Eddy, Edward and MJ were thus bringing up the rear.

"Seen anything?" asked Sonic. The Ruffs shook their heads, as the trail continued to slowly wind through the darkness. At the back, MJ stopped. Edward looked back.

"You alright sis?" he asked, stepping back to her. MJ had put a hand on her head.

"It feels like it's burning," she said. "I… I…" She staged backwards suddenly. Edward made a dive forwards to try and catch her, but was blasted way by a flash of blue energy. He landed on Eddy, who'd been to busy looking at the ceiling to make sure it didn't fall on him. The two of them skidded to a halt, and once Eddy had stopped cursing, they looked back.

MJ's eyes were now closed, and her body had completely relaxed. But she hadn't fallen down, for she was being supported by Bubbles' hand on her head. "Don't worry my dear," she said to Edward calmly, "your sister's quite safe. Safer then you in fact."

Edward jumped up, and Eddy scrabbled up eventually. Both glanced down the corridor for the others, but Sonic and the Ruffs had moved out of sight, and a wall appeared to have materialised in the way. Bubbles chuckled, and they looked back.

"Okay Bubbles," said Eddy a lot more calmly then he felt, "I know we've never quite seen eye to eye, but I don't think there's any reason for us to resort to violence?"

"I'm sorry Eddy," said Bubbles, in a tone that suggested she wasn't sorry at all, "but your "loving wife" has made that impossible. You now need to die." She looked down at MJ. "However, don't worry; your gene pool will survive, once it's exterminated you!"

MJ's eyes flicked open again, but now rather then there usual pink colour, they were a concerningly (but predictably) bright blue colour. She started hissing and slurring aggressively, with murder in her eyes. Bubbles laughed.

"Time for a nice family chat, I think," she said. "Enjoy!" She disappeared.

MJ approached slowly and confidently. Her arms and legs were spread away from her body, to make her look larger, and acid dribbled from her two long front teeth, as they hung out of her gapping mouth. Both Eddy and Edward considered the old, emotional speech trick, but like decided against it. Eddy turned to his son.

"You go," he said, "I'll make a nuisance of my self, and you can make sure that I get the huge and extravagant funeral I disserve!"

Edward looked at him derisively. "Have you still got those golf clubs on you?" he asked. Eddy nodded. "Give me one," said his son, "and then go find Mum. I'll hold her off, and get out of it alive too."

Eddy gapped. "I can't loose both my kids!" he argued. "Who'd collect my life insurance policy, that cost me thousands of dollars a year!"

"Relax Dad," said Edward calmly, drawing a putter from the golf bag and brandishing it like a staff, "She's my sister, fighting her is a speciality of mine. Prepare for a lot of hair pulling!"

Eddy shrugged. Then he looked at his son, and thought about giving him a proper good bye. Traditional nervousness however prevented him from doing more then mussing his son's hair, before sprinting away down a corridor, carrying a mountain of regrets.

Edward looked back at MJ, and the two of them made solid eye contact. She hissed at him, and Edward clicked his teeth. "Good luck sis," he whispered, and then he swung the club.

* * *

"I hate to worry you," said Boomer suddenly, "but I think we've lost Eddy and the kids." Sonic shrugged.

"As long as they've got MJ with her they'll be fine," he said, "or if not, then we can rescue them once we've saved the world…" he stopped. SP had just jumped down from the ceiling and was stood silently in front of them, staring at them with bright blue eyes. The three heroes stood there for a moment as Butch's heart missed a beat. "Okay," Sonic said quietly, "on the count three, we jump her. One, two…"

"WAIT!" said Butch, and Sonic and Boomer nearly hit the roof in surprise.

"WHAT!" shouted Sonic, taking his eyes temporarily off SP to properly shout at the green ruff.

"Please," me said, "give me a chance to talk to her. I think I can get her to trust me."

Boomer snorted. "Don't be stupid, she's pure evil, look at her!"

"Oh really, and you're an expert at judging character I suppose," retorted Butch.

"May I drag you two back to the current issue," said Sonic angrily, but he was interrupted by an eerie voice, that almost sounded like Bubbles.

"_I've had just about enough of your lies about my wife," _it said.

"I've had just about enough of your lies about my wife!" said Boomer.

"_Shut up you little twat, your getting well above your station," _the voice continued.

"Shut up you little twat, your getting well above your station!" said Butch, burning with furry.

"Now hang on a minute," said Sonic desperately, "are you two listening to your selves?" but it was too late.

"YOU'VE BEEN ASKING FOR THIS FOR A LONG TIME," said Butch, Boomer and Bubbles' voice at once, and then the two Ruffs threw themselves at each other. Sonic was about to scream at them to stop, when he suddenly thought that he really ort to be looking somewhere else.

Sure enough, SP was studying him in a concerning way. And she was licking her lips. Moments latter, Sonic and SP barrelled in-between the two fighting Ruffs, the former desperately trying to keep the latter's teeth away from his throat.

And from just above the growing orb of energy in the pyramids very centre, Bubbles scowled with triumph. "Just ten more minutes."


	14. Plan Brick

**14. Plan B-rick**

In the far corner of Death's domain, just to the right of the beehives, there is a door. Just a door. A small, ordinary, wooden door. It's back of course, like everything is in this corner of the universe, but it isn't attached to anything. It just stands there, in the air, looking extremely unimportant.

It was here that Brick and Roland stood. The Austrian was standing a pace or two back from the Ruff, who was studying the door intently. Eventually, he turned to Roland.

"Is this what your contact produced?" he asked indignantly. Roland shrugged.

"He's a friend of a friend of an acquaintance," he said.

"Well I don't get it," Brick replied, "and I don't have time to mess around.

"Have you tried opening it?" suggested Roland.

"Obviously!" Brick slammed the handle down and pushed his shoulder against it hard to prove this. Roland nodded, and wave Brick out of the way. Then he walked up to the door, clicked it joints, grabbed the handle slowly, pulled it down, paused dramatically for a moment, and then pulled it open. He didn't even need to look smug; Brick was already annoyed enough by this development.

"Fine!" he said, and strolled back over. On the other side of the door was a void – a narrow back corridor of nothing. The only was of travel was up, or down. "Err, so were do I go?"

"Well up is the good place," said Roland, pointing into the vertical shaft, "and down goes to hell, obviously. And earth is about a third of the way down."

"Haha, always with the social commentary."

"I'm serious," said Roland, "what you need to do is jump down there, and fall for about ten minutes. Then shout the name of your destination, and if you've got it right, you will arrive on earth, fully able to interact with the world."

"And if I get it wrong?" asked Brick tentatively.

"Then I hope you enjoy eternal damnation," Roland replied bluntly.

"Right," said Brick still determined.

"And," said Roland said quickly, "there will be plenty of demons trying to make sure you do end up there."

"Got it."

Roland was slightly exasperated by all this. "Are you really going to risk going to hell just to save the world? I mean you were luck to get out of it the first time, and I thought you'd welcome Blossom dying?"

"That's not the point," said Brick, who was having second thoughts himself. But rather then feed on them, he turned the question around. "You can't argue that I'm not doing the right thing. Don't you have people you care about back on earth? Why don't you want mean to go?"

"Not for your sake that's for sure!" Roland fumed. He looked at his feet. "But do you have to take her with you?

Brick looked down at Brandy, and then bent down to pick the young puff up. He looked at the Emerald green eyes and smiled.

"I have to," he said. "I need some one pure to shut off the Chaos Orb, and what could be more pure than a baby?"

"Obviously you don't believe in original sin," murmured Roland, before adding louder, "hell is no place for baby." He tickled the place where Bandy's nose should be. She gurgled, and grabbed his finger. Roland stared at her, and then stood back. Brick looked at him.

"She won't end up there," Brick reassured him, "because I'm in control!" He turned to the do, and with one deep breath, jumped through it, wailing "I'M COMING BLOSSOM!"

Roland watched him go. "I thought that's what she says," he muttered, before sadly closing the door.

* * *

The pyramid had been undisturbed for hundreds of years, until today. Hence there was an awful lot of dust around. And, after all those centuries of stillness, it was suddenly getting a lot of action.

Sonic swung his head either side of SP's punches and vicious bites, before backing up against a wall. SP smiled, and lunged at him. This posed little problem for a super fast hedgehog, who simply stepped out the way allowing SP to head butt a wall. Normally, he would take advantage of this situation, but today, the priority was to stop Bubbles, so Sonic went shooting off. He didn't get far; Butch had just landed a very good hit on Boomer, that had sent the blue puff flying backwards; right into the path of the escaping Sonic.

Boomer, despite (arguably, by him anyway) being the softest of the Ruffs, picked him self up rapidly from the resulting heap, and launched a series of rapid blasts at Butch, but Sonic, who's fighting tactics rather relied on not being hit, took longer to recover. Long enough for a familiar, sticky substance to spin around his legs. Sonic got as far as "Oh Fu…" before SP used her now entrapping webbing to whirl him about her head, before slamming him into a wall.

As he slid down it, Edward and MJ rolled in, Edward using the club as a stick to keep MJ's blood stained teeth away from his neck – the blood being a legacy of a failed earlier attempt. But despite MJ's greater strength, It wasn't completely one sided. Edward proved this by kneeing her in the groin, and throwing her off. She crashed into SP, giving the two of them a momentary break. Sonic turned to Edward.

"How do you do that?" he asked. "I'm super-sonic, yet I can barely move fast enough to hit SP."

"Yes," said Edward, "But the spider sense they use to predicate our attacks is only supposed to predict people trying to kill her, so as her brother, I don't set it off."

"I see," said Sonic, unhappy that it wasn't something that he could replicate.

"It's good," admitted Edward, "except she's a lot stronger then me, and," he added pointing to the two hissing, spitting spiders that picked them selves up, "I don't think they feel pain like this."

Sonic thought back to how they'd dealt with MJ the last time she was like this. "You don't happen to have any cooked food with you, do you," he asked.

"No," said Edward, as Butch suddenly slid across the fall just in front of them, before he dived back towards his brother, with a look of hatred in his eyes.

"Okay," Sonic replied thoughtfully, "then we better hope that the one of your parents has a plan. BRACE!" he cried, as SP and MJ attacked again.

* * *

Blossom and Buttercup sat up slowly, grabbing there heads. The entire room was beginning to shake. The two puffs looked at each other quietly.

"You alright," asked Blossom. Buttercup nodded gingerly.

"I think so. Where's Bubbles?" The two of them looked round slowly, and saw Bubbles, standing by her throbbing orb, laughing hysterically. Buttercup nudged her sister. "Look, she's got her back to us, and she seems distracted. Hit her with that Kamahamaha move or something!"

Blossom nodded, and pulled her hands back to the appropriate position, but nothing happened. She tried again, and still there was nothing. Confused, she glanced at a puddle of water near by, and received a concerning answer. "My eyes are Brown!" she gasped, "I… I have no powers!" She turned to her sister, but Buttercup, with dulled Green eyes, had already worked it out. She looked destitute.

"I can't live with out my power's…" she quaked.

Blossom looked around to her. "Now wait Buttercup," she said quickly, "I… We can get through this."

"NO!" shouted Buttercup, furry etched across her face. "I won't be a pathetic slave to Bubbles for ever! Not while there's this much power around." She felt the air for a while, and then sprinted for one of the streams of energy.

"WAIT," wailed Blossom, which finally made Bubbles look round, but it was too late. Buttercup threw her self into the stream.

The bright green explosion threw Blossom across the room, shook the pyramid right down to the foundations, and even forced the mighty Bubbles to take a step back. The blinding flash eventually cleared, and Buttercup remerged.

But like Bubbles earlier, she had changed. And Blossom finally understood, for while Bubbles had changed her self into a sexy goddess, Buttercup – despite retaining her feminine shape – was now nearly entirely muscle. It was exactly what they both would have chosen, Blossom thought.

Bubbles tried not to look surprised. "Put on a bit of weight have we?" she asked.

Buttercup ignored her initially; she was looked at her newly inflated muscles, and the electric energy sparking off her. Then, seemingly impressed, she turned to Bubbles, with a concerningly evil expression on her face.

"That orb is mine Bubbles," she declared, taking up an attacking position, "and you're dead!"


	15. Suger vs Spice vs Everything Nice

Hia, I'd just like to quickly thank everyone that is reading this story so far. Thanks.

**15. Sugar vs. Spice vs. Everything Nice**

Brick tried to ignore the disorientating blackness around him. Instead, he tried to focus on the falling sensation.

"Okay, so down is… THIS WAY!" he declared, and after a quick check on Brandy (who was gurgling happily), he shot off downwards, using his flying powers to propel him. "Not long now," he said through gritted teeth.

As he fell, he started to see flashes fly before his eyes. At first, he thought it was the g-forces, but eventually he realised they were planets, all inhabited, all shining in the light of their stars, and all on the way to hell. "Earths a third of the way down," he reminded himself, "so don't miss it!" as he tried to focus.

However, his concentration was distracted by a demonic hand suddenly lunging at him. With a sharp (and slightly unmanly) scream, Brick managed to avoid getting his head taken off, but a second arm approached from a different angle, that sliced a huge gash in his side.

Brick roared in pain, and swung round viscously with his free hand, cutting the demon's clean off, before blasting into the darkness in the general direction of the other one. There was a wail and a brief pause. Sensibly, Brick didn't drop his guard.

Sure enough, moments later all hell quite literally broke loose. Brick swung down in a flurry of fists and feet, trying desperately to force them back. It seemed to be futile; the demons seemed to take pleasure in taunting him, ripping flesh off his arms and chest seemingly with out effort. They were waiting for him to get tied, before dragging him down to hell. Brick knew this.

"I DON'T LIKE BEING PLAYED WITH!" he screamed, and let out a wave of energy from his body, temporarily forcing them away. As he paused to catch his breath, exhausted by his exertion, another demon lurked into view. It paused, showing its hideous features off, and them spotted something. The wiggling Brandy in Bricks arms. Brick noticed this, and tried to shield her form it. "No you don't!" he said.

The Demon didn't listen. Its right arm shot forward, and ripped Bricks arm away from her. The left came in next, diving for Brandy. Brick screamed a profanity to try and drive it back, but he needn't have bothered, for a green beam suddenly ripped through the vile creature's chest.

Brick blinked, and glanced at the smirking Brandy. Then he laughed. "Your parents would be proud," he smiled. Brandy just giggled. Then Brick had a plan. "I need you to do that again for me, and I'll get us to Earth."

Wrapping Brandy tight in his arms, Brick blasted not only downwards, but also an energy shield out around him. In this bubble, the two of them fired downwards, with Brandy firing at the demons strong enough to get through Brick's shield. Soon they were going at a terrific speed, and Brick glanced at his watch, remembering it was ten minutes from the start to earth. He was in for a shock though.

"That was the longest thirty seconds that I've ever seen!" he muttered, as blood from his wounds flowed down him.

* * *

Blossom looked at Buttercup, who was standing tensed and ready to go, her newly huge muscles moving with each breath. 

"Buttercup… are you okay?" she asked tentatively.

"I'm fine Blossom," said Buttercup eerily calmly. "In fact, I've never felt better." She smiled, looking from her bulging arms to her taut waist. "This exactly what I've always wanted! Unbeatable strength! You should feel it Blossom, I feel like a goddess!"

"I suspect Bubbles can emphasise with you," Blossom muttered darkly. It was meant as a warning, but she was a little jealous of her sisters' power. Well, more then a little. She could feel evil emotions flowing through her body, driving her mad. It was the chaos energy surging through the room, Blossom thought. Even though she was now powerless, it was still affecting her. She could only imagine the power it had over Buttercup… and Bubbles.

"Don't look so worried," said Buttercup kindly. "I'm just going to kill Bubbles, and then take all the power here for myself. And I'll find a much better use for it then building a new universe." She paused for thought. "Maybe I'll use it to make myself invincible!"

Bubbles, who'd been standing off with her hands folded, was tired of being ignored. "So you admit you not now," she smirked. "I knew those muscles were just for show, your still the weak pathetic fool that bossed me around inside."

"Or maybe," said Buttercup, now directing her words to Bubbles, "I'll use the orb to create an opponent worth my time. You're nothing to me!"

Bubbles blinked, still looking as relaxed as possible. Then with a wave of her hand, she moved the orb, and the beams supplying it, up high to the roof. "That'll make sure there's no more interference," she said, glancing towards the powerless Blossom. She was right, there was no way she could now "recharge" her self the same way Buttercup had just done.

Bubbles then turned back to Buttercup. "Why would you deform your body like that just for a bit of strength," she asked. "I mean, why not use the energy to make your self irresistible, like me…"

"Because I like the rush of fighting!" Buttercup bellowed, and she finally shot forward, flying towards Bubbles.

"… and use the rest for power," Bubbles finished. (Bubbles' transformation took less energy, allowing more free for blast based attacks.) To prove this point, Bubbles fired a huge surging energy beam from her eyes towards the charging Buttercup. The green Puff didn't even blink, and she burnt straight through the beam, before walloping a very surprised Bubbles under the chin, seeming her careering towards a wall. She never reached it though because Buttercup beat her there, and smashed her back. Bubbles hit the floor, bounced once and smashed through a statue and slip to a stop next to Blossom. The powerless puff decided to scramble away for cover, while Bubbles – looking injured for the first time since her change – tried to get up.

She only got as far as kneeing, before Buttercup kicked her in the back. Bubbles slammed into the wall, now defiantly injured. She scoped her self up and whirled round furry burning in her glowing eyes. Buttercup hadn't exactly stood around waiting for Bubbles to recover however, she'd scoped up a massive stone statue (that Blossom estimated must have weighed at least ten tons) and hurled it at Bubbles as if it was a paper weight.

Bubbles raised her hands, and fired lighting bolts from her fingers, destroying the missile before it reached her. Buttercup didn't worry; instead she stamped her foot, causing the entire pyramid to shake, and the floor to crack. The shock waves hit Bubbles (and Blossom) with the force of an earthquake. The blue puff tumbled to the floor, while Buttercup caught two massive rocks that had broken up from the roof, and hurled them at Bubbles. She dogged the first, but the second was a direct hit, and Bubbles staggered back. She managed to stay on her feet, and glanced furiously back at her sister. She was battered and bruised, and her right arm was broken, but Buttercup was unbothered.

"Still reckon you can challenge me?" Buttercup asked. "Face it, you're finished!"

Bubbles looked at her sister intently for a moment, and then laughed. "You're a fool Buttercup," she said. "You transformation has given you exactly what you want, and I can't believe all you really want from your body was brute strength! I mean, I know you can't do this…" She raised her twisted right arm. Suddenly, with a surge of blue light, it twisted back into shape. "You must love pain," she added.

"What the…!" started Buttercup, but before she could finish, Bubbles had completely healed her self. She smiled, her sparkle having returned.

"NOW FEEL MY FULL POWER!" she screamed, raising her hands either side of her, and powering up two huge energy balls. Buttercup prepared to doge, but rather then firing them individually, Bubbles swung her arms together in front of her and fired a massive beam forward. The entire room shook again due to the force of the wave, while Buttercup only had time to bring her forearms up to protect herself.

The beam hit them, and drove Buttercup backwards. She growled angrily and dug her feet in, pushing back with all her strength, the floor cracking beneath her. Bubbles laughed hysterically, and with a yelp drove yet more energy at Buttercup until the blast engulfed her sister. Eventually, she ran out of energy, and Bubbles, panting heavily, looked to where she expected the remains of her sister to be.

She was wrong however. Buttercup was burnt, bleeding and missing hair and skin in places, and gasping for breath but she was still alive, and on her feet. If anything, she seemed to have got stronger.

"Don't forget," laughed Buttercup at her distraught sister "I _love _pain!"

* * *

The shaking and cracking pyramid didn't make things any easier for Edward and Sonic. The two of them had little time to consider what was responsible for this though, as they were too busy trying to defend themselves from the Spider twins. 

"I can't take much more of this!" wailed Edward as he scrabbled away from MJ once more.

"That's not the spirit," panted Sonic, as SP ducked under his punches and took his legs away with a sharp kick.

"It's not my fault," cried Edward, who was almost on the verge of tears, "I'm not paid to do this! Anyway, it's not easy having your little sister trying to kill you."

"I'd though you'd be used to it by now," muttered Sonic as he jumped up, but he was silenced by a stream of webbing sticking over his mouth. SP laughed at this personal success, in a brief display of humanity, before she returned to her task of killing for food. She leapt forward, giving Sonic a chance to kick her under the ribs. This hit perturbed SP for long enough to allow Sonic to pull the webbing off his mouth, but no longer, and the duel of death soon resumed.

Meanwhile, Edward had been grabbed by MJ on his shoulders, and hurled him around into a wall, just to the right of a statue. She stalked over to him, acid dripping from her open mouth, and murder in her eyes. Edward was beaten and battered, with blood running from a wound in his forehead. Unable to get up, he felt like a mouse that a cat had stopped toying with. That meant that the next stage was lunch.

Edward waited until MJ was in range, and then swung his golf club at her with all his strength. MJ caught it with one hand, and snapped it in half with little effort. She smiled smugly, and hissed opened mouthed, read to bite.

Considering the circumstances, Edward thought it appropriate to wave the rule on not swearing in front of his sister. "Buger," he said.

MJ lunched at him teeth first, aiming for a quick will. In desperation, Edward dived left. MJ followed instinctively, but miss judged the move, and ended up with a mouthful of stone statue, which she bit hard. Her brother rolled away, and he was just about to take advantage of the situation to hit her from behind, when he heard MJ crying.

"OWWW," she wailed grabbing her teeth. "It hurts, it hurts!"

Edward lowered his fist and walked apprehensively over. "Come on MJ," he said, "let me have a look." MJ turned to him, her pink but now sane eyes were streaming tears of pain. Upon Edward's cajoling, she opened her mouth, and he had a look. "Ah, you've cracked a tooth. That's going to hurt for a while; we'll need to see a dentist, but for now if you breathe on it, your ice breath should numb the pain. Okay?"

MJ nodded sadly. She looked so miserable that Edward couldn't help but give her a hug. MJ readily accepted, but after a moment, she remembered something. "Wasn't I just trying to kill you," she asked.

"Probably," admitted Edward, "but that's in the past now."

"Oh really," interrupted Sonic, as he slide past desperately dodging SP's attacks, "because it's still very much in the present for me!"

"Okay," said Edward and MJ in chorus, "what do you want us to do?"

Sonic was so dismayed by this answer that he nearly forgot to duck SP's latest strike. "Blossom didn't teach you two anything, did she," he replied once he'd got a moment.

"I didn't want to learn," said Edward proudly.

"And she says I'm too young," MJ moaned.

"Hypocrite," muttered Sonic, but he reflected that insulting the two children's mother wasn't the best way to get himself rescued, especially considering that the distraction had allowed SP to grab him by the throat. "You're bright kids," he croaked, "improvise!"

"What does that mean?" asked MJ, as Sonic slowly turned from blue to purple.

"I think it means make it up as you go along," said Edward.

"Right," said MJ, "my spider sense will cancel out hers, so get ready!" She took up a stable stance, and fired a line of webbing from each arm at SP. They gripped her on the back, and with a childlike yelp of surprise, SP was yanked backwards hard, dropping Sonic as she went.  
MJ waited until the last moment before ducking, and letting her whiz over her head, and into Edward's fist that was travelling in the opposite direction at high speed. He planted it perfectly on the back of her neck, and SP collapsed in an unconscious heap on the floor.

Sonic staggered to his feet, gasping for breath. I'm getting too old for this, he thought. Then he noticed that Blossom's two kids were looking at him for approval. The leader of all earth's superheroes took a moment to compose himself, and then gave his critical opinion.

"Not bad," he said, "for a first try."

* * *

Boomer and Butch's scrap had moved away from the other fight during its progression. This was mainly because the extra power they possessed allowed their battle to pass _through_ walls without it coming to an abrupt halt. Still, that didn't mean that they weren't the worse for wear for the experience. Both of them were badly battered, and their clothes were ripped and torn; Butch had even disposed of his top completely, exposing a bear chest. Despite this he'd had the best of it thus far. 

Boomer swung a fist at Butch. It was ill timed though, showing the blue puff's increasing desperation. He's just weaker then me, thought Butch, as he easily slipped under his brother's blow, and stuck Boomer under the ribs, winding him significantly. Maybe I should give him a chance to save face after this. Still, it was worth guaranteeing acceptance, so Butch zipped round above his brother, and thumped him into the floor hard. Before he could get up again, Butch landed on his back.

"Okay bro," he said, "let's face facts. You're not strong enough to beat me, and us proving that point would just waste precious time. So if you accept that, we can tell everyone that we settled our differences in a mature adult manner, rather then that I had beat you to a bloody pulp because you were too weak to defend yourself and too stupid to realise it."

Boomer laughed, and coughed up some blood. "I wouldn't count on it," he said, in a voice that was more squeaky then normal.

"What's that?" asked Butch confused, but Boomer suddenly through him off, and into a wall. It didn't hurt Butch must, and he jut sighed resignedly, before preparing to go thump his idiot (in his opinion,) brother once more. However, when he tried to move, he found that he couldn't. "Hey, what is this!" he asked.

Boomer sneered, as he stood up again. "You're the idiot Butch," he said, in a tone that implied he'd read his thoughts, "You've backed the wrong horse. My beloved Bubbles may not be able to beat your Buttercup in a straight fight just yet, but she has the power to make sure I can beat you until your black and blue!"

Butch gulped, and tried once more to move, but he was powerless. Boomer zipped over, and started to hit him again and again, with an insane look in his eyes. Unable to defend himself at all, Butch just tried to grin and bear it.

"I wonder if Buttercup knows," he thought hazily, as his brain bounced around in his head. His answer came soon, as a roar of anger from somewhere shook the pyramid to the foundations.

"She knows," he murmured, as Boomer knocked him lazily through another wall.

* * *

Eddy's earlier high speed flight from the battle had slowed quickly. By now, it was just a slow plod. Part of the reason for this was that he was completely lost. The winding corridors of the pyramid all looked the same, and Eddy had never had a good sense of direction anyway. He had picked up a few expensive items on his travels, so he wasn't too miserable, just worried. The ceiling shook again, and some small stones fell from the roof. 

"This place could collapse at any moment," he muttered nervously, but he forced himself forward. "I'm not leaving hear without Blossom!" he squawked determinedly, daring himself, or anyone else to disagree.

No one did, although Ed and Edd weren't there to argue. Eddy secretly suspected that they'd both had agreed with him anyway. Blossom seemed to get on very well, with Double D especially. He wished his two friends where hear. "Why should I be the only one to suffer this," he moaned.

The sounds of crashing were getting louder and louder. Despite his best instincts, Eddy headed towards the source of the noise. If there was trouble, Blossom was sure to be there. Presently, he found an opening, and peered through it. To his amazement, he'd found the centre, and Bubbled and Buttercup pounding the shit out of each other.

Buttercup heavily injured her self, but seemingly unconcerned by it was currently holding a mangled, but healing Bubbles by the neck. "You know," she said, "I'm glad you can heal, because it means that I can just beat you up again and again, for my pleasure. And once I'm done, I'll rip Boomer limb from limb, in front of your very eyes!"

Bubbles laughed, as her broken neck clicked freakily back into shape. "You'll never get the chance!" she crowed. Suddenly, her right arm changed into pure blue energy, and she stuck it straight through her sister. Buttercup yelped in pain, and Bubbles smoothly withdrawed it. No whole was left, but Buttercup was badly burned. She shot Bubbles a horrible look, as her arm returned to normal.

"You…" Buttercup stuttered, "You've been holding back!"

"Yes, it's an interesting tactic," said Bubbles, charging her body with a healthy surrounding blue glow. "I don't need to show everything at once, like you."

"You could have fooled me," laughed Buttercup, looking at Bubbles' current skimpy dress. "But," she continued, "if you're going to be more of a match, that's fine with me. It will just hurt you more when you loose!" She fired her self up with her own Green glow, and the two of them smashed into each other, before the fight suddenly picked up so much speed that a normal human like Eddy could no longer follow it.

Instead, Eddy glanced around the room for Blossom. He saw her, cowering behind one of the rocks that had been broken up by the fight. Eddy made his way into the room and quietly over to her, sneaking around the rubble and trying not to think about what could happen if he was caught.

Eventually, he was close enough to her. "Blossom," he whispered. Blossom had been looking upwards, trying vainly to follow the battle above. Eddy surprised her, and she swung round rapidly to him. Eddy immediately noticed two things. Firstly, the dull, almost human brown eyes, and secondly the tears running from them. "Blossom? What's wrong?" he asked as he scrambled over to her.

Blossom sniffed. "We've lost," she muttered.

"What? No you haven't, not yet."

"Yes we have. The energy's got us. Bubbles and Buttercup have been changed. The evils got to them, and the orb is nearly ready. Once they've got a winner, they'll use the power too… I… they…" she choked on her words. Eddy put an arm round her and gave a reassuring squeeze.

"It's okay," he added. "So they're both evil, and nearly invincible. You've been through worse. You beat Superman remember! I'm sure you can still find away to save everyone, including your sisters. You always do."

Blossom's face changed. "I can't," she said simply, trying to hold back the tears.

"You can," said Eddy determinedly, "even without your powers. I believe in you."

"No, I can't!" said Blossom firmly, "cause I've fallen too."

"What?" asked Eddy. Blossom pointed upwards.

"Look at the two of them up there, strong, beautiful, and powerful. They make me look like dirt. And I'm not!" She burst angrily, "I'm their leader! It should be me using that orb! I would stop this fight in an instant, and then we would work together to do what ever we wanted! No one could stop us, and I'd be in charge of it all!" Her shoulders slumped. "But without my powers, I can't do anything."

Eddy was flabbergasted. "This isn't you Blossom," he protested. "I know your better then this."

"It's the energy," said Blossom resignedly, "it's so… strong. It just forces all my evil desires to the surface. You can't fight it, only embrace it."

Eddy thought for a moment. "Okay," he said. "Embrace it, but not in the way it expects you too."

Blossom blinked. "How do you mean," she asked.

"It's not too hard, lots of heroes motivate themselves through evil desires like revenge. You can do it too. Think about it; you're supposed to be Bubbles and Buttercup's leader, yet your now insignificant compared to them, and they're going to rule the world, a world that's rightfully yours! So what does your evil side want you to do?"

Blossom thought for a moment. "Stop them!" she smirked.

"Precisely," said Eddy triumphantly. "If you can't use that orb and be an ultimate puff, then no one will!" Blossom nodded as a viscous, yet somehow heroic smirk creeping over her face. Her eyes slid across the room to the grey emerald, sitting on its plinth, directly bellow the orb.

"And I know just how…" she said.


	16. Only One Number One

Okay, firstly, I'm really sorry for the delay, I just couldn't find the time. I'll try to do better next time, okay?

**16. Only One Number One**

Sonic, Edward and MJ had moved on from the seen of their earlier misunderstanding. (The unconscious SP had been left where she lay, after being webbed up to avoid surprise attacks, and her airway being cleared.) The three of them where following the same tactic as Eddy, and heading towards the noise. Sonic was listening intently, but he was being distracted.

"I wouldn't have done it if Bubbles hadn't mind controlled me…"

"I know MJ," replied Edward for the umpteenth time.

"… I mean, you know I'm not like that," MJ spluttered on, "I'm in control of my spider side now. Please don't tell mum."

"If you don't shut up," said Sonic angrily, "I'll tell her!" He was trying to orientate himself.

"Sorry," said MJ quietly, before slapping her hand over her mouth, and apologising again.

This done, Sonic put his ear to the wall and listened. "I think I can hear something he murmured. "It might be…"  
Much to Sonic's surprise, Butch came smashing through the wall in front of him and landed in a heap. Edward and MJ rushed over to the mangled green Ruff.

"Are you okay Uncle Butch?" asked Edward. Butch, however was still being partially paralysed by Bubbles, pointed a shaky hand in the direction of the hole in the wall. The two kids looked through it, and Boomer suddenly burst through, hatred still steaming from his eyes, ready to continue his assault on his brother. Edward and MJ simultaneously assessed the situation and were about to attempt to defend one uncle from the other, when Sonic zipped in front in a blue flash and kicked Boomer hard in the groin. The Blue Ruff collapsed to the floor in agony, Bubbles control broken.

"That was a bit drastic," said Edward, clutching his privates in sympathy.

"Yeah?" Sonic snapped, "well I've had just about enough of this story. I don't appear until the tenth chapter, and then when I do I'm portrayed as an imbecile that has to be rescued by eleven and six year old kids! I don't need this," he said, shaking his fist at no one in particular, "I have my own section on this site, which respects me!"

"Who are you talking too?" asked MJ. Before Sonic could spew out another triad of abuse, a ceiling block inexplicably dropped on his head. MJ and Edward watched him stagger around for a moment.

"Do you every get the feeling," Edward asked his sister, "that you've just wandered into a cartoon?"  
MJ shrugged, before gently (yet with her standard surprising strength) picking up her two uncles. "Shall we go find Mum and Dad?"

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The blue and green blur raced above Eddy and Blossom, the sound of blasts, crunching punches and screams echoing all around. Occasionally one of the colours (usually the blue one) would go flying way and smashing into a wall, before Bubbles would briefly appear visible, for just long enough to fire a massive energy blast at Buttercup, before close range battle was rejoined. Below, Eddy was sure that this would go one for ever, they would never stop. And all the while, the orb was growing bigger and brighter as it neared completion.

"Alright," said Blossom suddenly, "they're beginning to tire. Its time to act."

"What?" asked Eddy, "how can you tell they're getting tired?"

"Just a hunch. Soon, Bubbles will need to heal herself and Buttercup will need a rest, and they'll both take the opportunity to try and undermine the other's confidence."

"Because they are both evil now, right?"

"Quite. This will take a while, but remember they are currently so incredibly powerful, that all there senses are incredibly sensitive. Bubbles especially is nearly omnipresent. I need to get to the centre of the room if I'm to beat them, so if you can slip round the edge of the room now before they stop, and once they do you must get their full attention somehow. Then I can sneak out, and beat them."

"You what!" creaked Eddy, who'd nearly shat himself. "I… you want me to get them… to pay me attention! They'll vaporise me!"

"Don't worry Eddy, I believe in you," said Blossom, but it wasn't in a very encouraging manger. Eddy could now see the evil thoughts spread across her face. She was almost chuckling under her breath.

"I see," he said. "You really have embraced that evil side, haven't you." Blossom smirked.

"What happens happens Eddy. I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Right," said Eddy nervously. He looked round, then looked back at Blossom. Then he leant forward and gave Blossom a quick kiss on the lips, before creeping away.

Presently, as predicted, the green and the blue blurs stopped. Buttercup and Bubbles reappeared both panting heavily. Bubbles was badly beaten, bruises everywhere and Blood draining from many wounds, but her eyes still flashed with power, and her body was beginning to heal. Buttercup was still burnt and slightly cut and bruised, but her eyes showed no pain.

"Face it Bubbles," she cackled, "you can't hurt me! I am invincible!"

Bubbles wiped some blood from the corner of her mouth. "You may have had the part of your brain that registers pain cut off from the rest of your body, but that is not the same as being invincible. You're so thick that you will still be laughing about your invincibility as I blast you to hell!"

"You're all talk," said Buttercup bluntly, as she rotated her shoulders to keep her muscles warm. Bubbles was about to retort when they were both interrupted by a familiar voice.

"So, do you need to defeat an equally power full opponent?" said Eddy, loudly yet timidly. The two puff's looked round at him, their burning eyes looking straight through him. Eddy gulped and tried not to look at where Blossom would be coming from (which would be the quickest possible giveaway.) Instead, he took a deep breath and forced himself to carry on.

"Can you not land a hit that's powerful enough to hurt? Does your enemy heal her – I mean – themselves before you can land enough meaningful hits to kill them?" (As it became clear that they weren't going to kill him immediately, Eddy's confidence began to grow and he soon found himself rattling the sales pitch as if he were a kid again.) "They you should not be without these classic – and exclusive – golden swords!" He whipped the two of them out, having picked them up on his earlier travels. "Perfect for slicing a nearly invincible opponent or killing an irritating fly before she can heal, theses beautiful weapons are perfect for the task. Normally, acquiring such a weapon would cost a fortune, but for today only, they are available for a cut down price of just 25 cents!"

There was a suitably long pause, while Eddy kept his face in a fixed grin. Then Bubbles turned to Buttercup, who nodded. She turned back to Eddy, and stretched and open hand out towards him, in which a blue energy ball started to grow. "You dead," she said.

"I thought so," said Eddy as his shoulders slumped.

"Hey," said Buttercup angrily, "I know you deserve one more bit of fun before I obliterate you Bubbles, but leave some of Eddy for me, I've wanted him dead even longer then you have!"

"You two were never really supportive of us where you," Blossom sneered. Her two sisters stopped trying to kill Eddy and turned round.

"I thought you were going to be sensible and stay out the way," said Bubbles.

"I thought you were going to stop them without alerting their attention!" gargled Eddy terrified.

"Well, yes," said Blossom, "but I'm evil now, my dear husband, so I need to gloat about my impending success before I obtain it."

"What? Why? How are you about to obtain success? I don't get it?"

Blossom chuckled to herself. "Of course you don't. I you thought for a moment, you might, but that's why I'm the leader I suppose."

"Not anymore Blossom," Bubbles snipped. "I don't care whatever plan you and Eddy have concocted, but it can't stop me! So why don't you two go hide in the corner behind some rubble like the week fools you are, and if you are luck I might get so wrapped up in destroying Buttercup that I forget about you." She flicked her hair playfully. "You might even enjoy living in my universe, you never know. But if you don't cock off right now, you'll never have the chance to find out, because I'll incinerate you!"

Eddy looked at Blossom desperately. "Please Blossom, I think the evil villain mocking thing doesn't work when the person you're mocking is more evil!" he stuttered nervously. "Just do the plan or please can we run… YAHH!" he yelped. Buttercup had some how shot in behind him at full speed, and was now firmly grasping his shoulder.

"Oh I'm sorry Eddy," she said unsympathetically, "but once I have no intention of letting you go under any circumstances." She squeezed it to emphasise the point. Eddy yelped.

"You've never liked me have you," he gasped quietly.

"Well I thought I did," mused Buttercup, "But my new power has reminded me that my original opinion of you was perfectly valid."

"Ditto," said a voice. Bubbles, Buttercup and Eddy turned to the hole in the wall. The speaker, Sonic was standing confidently in it, with the Panner children and the two ruffs behind him.

"Ah," said Bubbles snidely, "the whole gang is here." She tilted her head on one side. "Boomer, MJ, I'm disappointed. You appear to have failed me."

"Good!" said Boomer defiantly, "You're not the women I love. I don't want you like this!"

Bubbles laughed, and brought her hand up to her breast. "Are you sure?" she asked. Boomer gulped, and shifted his stance slightly for comfort reasons. Butch had already done this, having seen Buttercup. The Green puff smiled at her husband.

"Don't worry Butch," she said in a smooth tone, "when I get that orb, I'm sure you can become like me, maybe even stronger, if that's possible." Suddenly, the buzzing noise from the afore mentioned orb changed. "Ah, speak of the devil, I believe it's ready."

"It maybe," interrupted Sonic calmly, "but neither of you will get to use it!"

Blossom was the only person not to have turned round upon Sonic's arrival. She'd kept her eyes firmly on her too sisters. That wasn't to say that she hadn't noticed. "Stay out of this Sonic," she commanded, "I have this covered."

"Don't be stupid Blossom," said Sonic, "You're effectively a normal human being now, and those two have more power then you can possibly imagine. This is not Powerpuff Girls Z and you are not Goku! _(Go figure: mg56)_ Don't try and be a hero!"

Blossom laughed. "That's the last thing I'm doing," she said. "A hero wouldn't cut it here, so why don't you just stand in the corner quietly like a good Hedgehog and prepare to do what your good at - running away!"

"Humph," Sonic muttered, "we'll see." Behind him, Edward and MJ glanced at each other nervously. Blossom ignored them.

"Right my dear sisters," she said with malice, "listen up, because I'm only going to say this once! Don't let your new powers go to your thick heads, because you know full well that I'm still you leader, I'm the greatest of us and I'm in charge! That orb and all it's power is rightfully mine, and I suggest that you give it to me now, and submit to my will. That way we can go on to rule the universe like we're supposed to, with me in charge, and we can have many centuries of unopposed rule." She cocked her head on one side, "because let's face it, if either of you were in charge of the universe, it would be a disaster. I mean, since when were you two ever a good leader? You're trying to kill each other for flips sake! Use your brains for once and get back in line, or I'll view this insubordination as a full rebellion," she clinched her fist, "that will have to be 'dealt with!'"

Buttercup and Bubbles looked blank for a moment. Then, Bubbles started laughing. And keep on laughing. In fact, it wasn't long before she was in full hysterics.

"Oh Blossom," she giggled, tears running from her face, "you actually believe you can beat us! I guess I was wrong, you never did change. The leader, the most intelligent, yet you still have no idea."

Buttercup didn't laugh. She simply tossed Eddy aside, who was now gibbering like a baboon, and picked up on of the swords he'd dropped. "You know how much I hate Bossy Blossom, and you'll never know how much I've wanted to do this!" She pointed the sword towards Blossom, who stood motionless with a firm look on her face. Buttercup scowled. "Shame, I was hoping for a look of fear at least.  
Ah well." She threw the sword, "I'll settle for a look of agony!"

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Buttercups strength and throwing arm meant that the sword hurtled towards Blossom very quickly and on perfectly on target. Time seemed to slow, well, maybe not but for the sake of the story, and because I like to try new things (like taking over a month to update with no good reason), let's slow it down for a moment, and see what every one is thinking at about the moment the sword was half way between the two puffs.

Buttercup's thoughts were nice and obvious. "This is for every time you told me what to do, what was right and what was wrong, in that irritating superior tone! I always new I could do it my self, and now I'll prove it!"

Butch's: "Shit, how can Buttercup do that? I thought she loved Blossom? This Chaos Energy is strong stuff, it's completely changed her! Mind you, she does look hot…"

Boomer's : "Gee, Butch looks angry; I hope he still isn't pissed with me! What's everyone looking at?"

MJ's: "MUM! NO! And there's nothing I can do! But I must try!"

Edward's: "Dam, that's not good! But wait, if Blossom was in trouble, Sonic would have moved, he's fast enough. What's his game?"

Sonic's: "You can't fool me Blossom, you're not that stupid. Come on, show your hand."

Eddy's: "Blossom! R… Aghagh My fucking shoulder!"

Bubble's "Oh dear Blossom, you've finally bitten off more then you can chew. Maybe I should say good bye… WAIT! WHAT'S SHE GOT IN HER HAND…?"

For the record, Blossom wasn't thinking anything.

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Bubbles fired a blast of energy that vaporised the sword inches from Blossom. As the dust fell to the floor, a couple of lines of webbing landed with it moments latter, as evidence of MJ's failed and unnecessary rescue attempt. Buttercup growled, and turned to Bubbles.

"What did you do that for!" she demanded furiously. Bubbles had gone pale.

"Look at what she's got in her hand," she gibbered in response. "Your attack was about to destroy it…"

Buttercup reluctantly looked, and then gaped in surprise. "It's the Grey Emerald!" she wailed, "How did you get that?"

Blossom chuckled, and tossed the innocuous looking gem into the air gently, causing both her sisters to wince. "Oh, I just picked it up while Eddy was distracting you. It's the centre of all usable Chaos Energy you know and without it your powers and the precious orb will be gone."

"Don't be a fool Blossom," snapped Bubbles fearfully, "there's nothing useful you can do with it, so put it down!"

Blossom smiled smugly. "Very well," she replied, and bending down, she gently placed the Emerald on the ground in front of her. Bubbles and Buttercup relaxed… slightly. "Now which one of you is going to pick it up," Blossom asked sweetly. Her sisters considered this for a moment, and glanced at each other suspiciously, granting Blossom the final chance she needed.

In an instant, she spread her legs slightly and stuck out an arm behind her. "5 IRON!" she bellowed. Fortunately, Edward was alert, and by the time Bubbles and Buttercup had turned back to Blossom, the required golf club was already surging towards her hand. Blossom caught it without looking, and took a moment to look up at her sisters. "You had your chance," she mouthed, and swung the club.

"NOO!" screamed Bubbles and Buttercup together and they dived at Blossom in one last attempt.

"RUN!" shouted Sonic to the others but none of them had got very far by the time Blossom struck the Grey Emerald. It immediately shattered into thousands of shards, in a stream of energy. From then, everything happened very quickly.

The remaining Puff's and Ruff's that had their powers immediately collapsed to there knees, as thin streams of energy pounded out of their bodies. Bubbles and Buttercup had much larger streams leaving theirs, but by the time their momentum carried them into Blossom, their bodies had returned to normal, and more so. As for the hue orb – floating high above them in the room, it started to throb rapidly, and then expanded in a surge of energy, that blew the two unaffected spectators (Sonic and Eddy) off their feet, as the entire room lit up.

Blossom, lying on her back with her sisters on top of her, glanced up at the orb, surging towards her. She felt the evil inside her receding as she did, and relaxed inside. She'd managed to stop her sister's at least, and maybe death wouldn't be so bad. She could she Brick again, that was for sure. In fact, Blossom was certain that she saw him for a moment, in the flesh, carrying a small child, right before the world seemed to explode…


	17. Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Okay, hello again. I'm hugely sorry for the delay, I had no internet connection at all, so couldn't even put up a warning. Anyway, here is a nice long chapter as compensation, although I don't know if you'll like it.

* * *

**17. Everybody Wants to Rule the World**

Outside the pyramid there were three thuds. One of them was Eddy, landing from his fairly spectacular flight. He carefully scooped himself up and rubbed his behind.

"Ow… that was a familiar experience," he mused. Then he looked around. "Blossom?" he called. "Edward… MJ? They must be still inside." He glanced towards the pyramid. "Or what's left of the inside."

The walls of the pyramid had been blown away, and rubble was everywhere. All that was left was the base of the pyramid and a strange green dome that was stretched out over it. It appeared to be made of Chaos Energy.

"That's strange," mused Eddy, worried, "I hope they're alright." Some Blood dripped to the floor in front of him. Presently, Eddy realised it was coming from his face. "I hope I'm alright," he yelped. He dabbed at his head wound. "Dam," he thought, "I hope someone's around soon."

"YOU MIGHT JUST GET YOUR WISH!" shouted a voice. Eddy swung round in shock, and a bit of fear. In his life Eddy had seen Sonic quite a lot, mostly at the SSR's Christmas Party, where he'd generally make a slightly drunk appearance that would be just long enough for him to take Blossom down a peg and ruin her evening (and therefore Eddy's, who never enjoyed being surrounded by lots of "fit" young men) before disappearing for the rest of the time. Eddy had always assumed that this was because being an alien, Sonic didn't really understand the holiday, or at least the concept that your work colleagues could be your best friends for one evening. But anyway, he was getting off the point, which was that he'd never really seen Sonic angry. He was now.

"Why?" Eddy asked rather meekly.

"I suspect it was your stupid idea to destroy the Grey Emerald, what on earth made you think that it would end well! The orb was bound to go out of control! One can only imagine what you were thinking, if you can think!"

"It seems fine to me," Eddy responded, "And it wasn't my idea, Blossom thought of it!"

Sonic blinked, and took half a step back. "I thought she was smarter then that. Couldn't see tell that all hell would break lose if she did that!"

Eddy took advantage of Sonic's brief stutter to step forward towards him. "I don't think she really cared about what would happen. She was evil you see."

"What?"

"I came up with a plan," Eddy tapped his chest proudly, "Blossom, like both her sisters had turned evil, so I convinced her to turn to evil in order to create the greater good through pummeling the idea into the lesser evils around her and then she came up with the plan to stop her sisters. And it worked!"

Sonic just looked at him. "You're an idiot aren't you," he said.

"Pardon?"

"I would have come up with a plan, you should have waited for me to arrive and sort it out. Leave it to the professionals."

"Oh very well," Eddy said insincerely "if you're can 'sort it out,' sort this!" He pointed to the pyramid. Sonic glanced at the remains and the green dome over the top of them. He was about to suggest something, when someone put a gun to his head.

* * *

There white light that had filled the room seemed to fad, and the pyramid returned. Or what was left of it. Blossom glanced around slowly. The walls had been blown out, and the whole structure seemed to have developed a green atmosphere. She moved her head slowly back to the centre and looked down herself (parallel to the floor, as she was laid on her back) at her sisters. The two of them were flopped on top of her, both exhausted and having returned to normal.

To normal. Blossom blinked and sat up slightly. That's not right, she thought, they should have lost their powers, like I did. Blossom glanced at the floor and fired an eye blast experimentally. It left a small creator in the ground. My powers are back, Blossom thought.

"You look surprised," said Brick. Somewhere in Blossom's mind, this registered a blip, but she'd always told herself that when this moment came, she'd try to be cool about it.

"Yes, I am," she said, "but no longer, because deaf would explain it, wouldn't it."

Bubbles and Buttercup slowly pushed them selves up. "We're dead?" asked Bubbles, slightly fearfully.

"If you were it would be your fault," Brick filled his voice with enough bile to make Bubbles physically recoil, "but your not."

Blossom swung round quickly. "What!"

"I said you're not dead," said Brick, hardly able to contain the smile on his face, and then he gestured to his fingers, that we're taking his pulse. "And nor I am, it seems."

"I… you… what!" Blossom garbled, trying to take it all in, and then she started jumping up and down like an excited child, "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Brick couldn't resist jumping as well, "I KNOW!"

The two of them laughed hysterically for a moment, Blossom turned to her sisters. "He's alive, he's alive!" she giggled. Bubbles nodded from the safe distance she'd retreated to, but Buttercup didn't respond at all. Her eyes were fixed on something else in the room, something floating just in front of her. Brandy giggled. Blossom stopped. "Buttercup…" she whispered, as beside her Brick just looked smug.

Buttercup reached out and gently touched her child's hand. Brandy looked at her and wrapped her hand around the out stretched finger. "Well I'll be…" she croaked staring straight into the one year olds' eyes. Butch appeared beside her, creeping along quietly, as if trying not to wake anyone from a dream. As he stood in silence next to his wife, he slowly out reached a shaking hand and gently touched Brandy in the stomach. There was a moment of deafening silence. Then it was broken by a baby's giggle.

Belying the fact that every muscle in her body was sore due to the fact they'd just shrunk to less then a fifth of there size, Buttercup immediately wrapped up Brandy in her arms, tears softly spilling down her cheeks. "My baby…" she whispered, "I'll never let you go again." Butch put his arm around Buttercup too, holding her tight as he tried to stifle back his own tears.

As Blossom looked on, smiling both inside and outside, Brick put his arm around Blossom too. "You know," he said, "I was thinking exactly the same thing."

It was another thing she'd always wondered about. Sixteen year was a long time. A very long time. Back then she'd just been a kid, although at the time that wasn't what she had thought. Back then she knew everything. Now, she knew that she knew nothing. Well almost nothing. At least, she'd always known one thing; she'd know Brick's kiss. And after all these years, it was the same. The same feel, the same surge, the same natural movements. As she felt Brick's hands move down from her face, onto her shoulders and then down even more, it was as if he'd never gone. And that he was never going to go again. Sixteen years had simply never happened.

"Mum, what are you doing?"

Of course, sixteen years had happened. Blossom and Brick broke the embrace, but not the hold, and looked slowly round. MJ and Edward were looking at the two of them intently. MJ was slightly stunned, as if trying to work out what was going on before her. Edward, in that surprisingly worldly way of his, was fixated on the ring on Blossom's hand, the hand that was currently clutching Brick so tightly.

The two of them released, slightly embarrassedly, Brick turning immediately to his brother Boomer in an attempt to try and make everything seem more natural. Boomer, who unlike Butch had not run into him since his death, was in a state of shock too, and while he greeted Brick again, Blossom briefly turned to her children. "I'll explain latter," she whispered. Edward gave her a piercing stare, but neither of them said anything. So Blossom decided to try and distract them. She turned to Brick. "So… what… I mean how did this all happen. One moment that orb was going to destroy us all, and we'd all lost our powers, and the next, well, you and the baby…"

"Brandy," said Brick before he could stop him self. Buttercup and Butch looked round.

"You named our baby," said Buttercup, astounded. Brick jumped.

"Well err yes. I mean I needed to be able to call her something, or would be difficult for us to communicate over things like food etc… hehe…" Buttercup looked down at Brandy, and then handed the baby over to Butch (who wasn't about to say no) before taking a step towards Brick, who tried not to look scared.

"You raised our child?" she asked this time. Brick was struggling to read the tone in her voice.

"Ah, yes, but Butch said I could do that," he burbled. "Why, don't you like the name?" he asked.

Buttercup took another step closer, into striking range of her brother-in-law. Then she raised her hand, and wiped the perspiration off Brick's forehead. She looked down at her hand and smiled. "You haven't sweated for a while, have you," she said, and then walked back to Butch, looking at the baby in his arms. Then she reached out a hand and tickled her under the chin, inspiring another round of giggles. "Brandy…" Buttercup mused to herself, "I like it."

Brick finally relaxed, and then turned to Blossom. "So, you wanted to know how I saved you all, right?" he said. The room in general nodded, except for Edward, who was currently giving Brick the sort of look that one might give to something they had found on the bottom of their shoe. Brick tried to ignore the red eyed stare. "Its quiet simple really, I found out that the way to stop the orb from destroying everything is to get someone who is completely pure to shut it off. Now what could be purer then a baby? So I grabbed Brandy, found a route out of Death's domain and fought my way through hundreds of demons (a bit of exaggeration wasn't going to hurt) to get here. Then it was just a matter of giving Brandy the orb and she would shut it off."

"Yeah," said Boomer, "that's just what Sonic said was the only way to shut it down, good thinking bro."

Brick laughed. "Well what did you expect?" he crowed.

"Shame it didn't work," said Bubbles, who'd been unusually quite until now. Brick looked incredulously at her.

"You're a right one to talk about plans not working," he sniffed, "and I think if you look," he gestured around him, "you'll find that it did work."

"Really," Bubbles stood up again, some of her confidence returning as she tried to brush over the fact that all of this was her fault in the first place, "in that case, where are Eddy and Sonic?"

Brick glanced around, "err…" he said.

"And why are you and Brandy alive again, and how come we've got our powers back? You can't explain that, can you!"

"I can," interrupted Buttercup, in an I-haven't-forgotten-what-you-did sort of tone. "Brandy obviously used the orb to do all that, because she a smart little baby, isn't she" she said to Brandy, cooing her child, much to Brandy's delight.

"You mean she wasn't pure enough," said Brick, slightly surprised, "but she was always such a good child."

"Or clever enough to avoid you catching her," said Butch proudly.

"She's not old enough for that sort of thing…"

"Hang on a moment," said Boomer nervously, "if Brandy's used the orb to create her self a universe where we're all back to normal, hasn't she destroyed everything?" There was a brief silence. Then they all look upwards at the green dome above them.

"She's too young to appreciate that there is a world outside the room she's in," said Butch, slightly in awe of their luck, "so she only created a universe the size of the pyramid!"

"Well that would explain the destruction anyway," said Blossom looking around.

"But what about Dad and Sonic?" asked MJ nervously.

"Yeah, what about Dad," snorted Edward with undisguised bile. He still hadn't taken his eyes off Brick. Little punk, thought the recently resurrected Red Ruff, sure Blossom won't want me to hurt him, but I'll need to have "a word" if everything's going to go to plan.

Still, it was a valid question. "I suppose that since Brandy doesn't know anything about them that they weren't compatible with her universe, so she expelled them."

"Will they be okay?" asked MJ nervously.

"They'll be in a better space then if Bubbles had succeeded," said Brick hurriedly, keen to point out that it wasn't his fault if they were dead. A part of him couldn't help hoping though. It would be a tragedy, yes, but an opportune one. He wondered if his luck would carry that far.

"SP's not hear either," mused Butch, but mainly to himself. He wasn't going to make a great fuss over the point since he had his first born back, but in the back of his mind he now had two children.

"So now what?" asked Boomer, after none had spoken for about half a second, "I mean, do we just leave, can we leave? Or are we stuck here forever?"

"Can't be," Brick replied, confident that since everything had worked out so far that it would continue too. He turned to Blossom, and took her hand. "Shall we step outside beautiful?"

It was a win-win situation; Brick could pretty much say anything and get away with it, since Blossom was just happy to see him. She blushed slightly. "Please Brick," she stuttered, "not in front of the kids." But she didn't pull away. Brick's heart missed a beat, something that it hadn't done for a long time. He was back, and Blossom was with him. Life truly was great.

He tried to ignore Edward's death stare, and MJ's obvious confusion, but it was hard. He supposed that his new life was going to start very interestingly. He would have to shrug off Eddy, which wouldn't be too hard, especially since he was certain of Blossom's support. As for the kids, that could be harder. He already had a connection with MJ, that was for sure and maybe Edward could be persuaded to go with his father, or at least to behave himself. He stretched his neck and leant on Blossom's shoulder, before putting an arm around her back. Almost involuntarily, she moulded herself to his shape. The future issues could go screw themselves, Brick thought; I never want this moment to end.

It ended a second latter, very, very quickly. Boomer was the only one who spotted it coming, and got as far as "LOOK OU-" before a demonic tentacle ripped its way though the fabric of the universe and grabbed Brick in a tight blast, chocking him and tearing him away from Blossom's grasp. In a moment, the tentacle recoiled, dragging him through the rip and out of sight. Out of the world once more, with barely time for a squeak.

The silence was deafening once more. Blossom looked like she'd been hit by a baseball without expecting it. Boomer and Butch didn't seem to know how to look, and Bubbles stepped back a bit, shaking visibly. Buttercup, however, kept her composure, clutching Brandy tightly. The baby broke the silence by starting to cry.

Silence, broken only by a child crying.

"Brick," whispered Blossom, her voice cracking gently.

The tentacle whipped back into the room, this time it was after Brandy. It moved at the speed of lightening, but Buttercup on heightened alert was just about equal to it. She swung her back to the creature, putting her body in-between it and Brandy. Unphased, the tentacle simply bent around Buttercup to reach its target, but it did give the green puff the chance to bite it. She took it.

After a brief struggle, the tentacle withdrew again, missing a chunk of flesh that was now in Buttercups mouth. She spat it out, and then swallowed the remaining blood in desperation, staring wildly at the others. "A little Help!" she bellowed.

A different demonic limb appeared from a new rip, a huge claw grasping for the baby. It caught Buttercup off guard, but not Boomer or Butch, the former driving it back with a well targeted eye zap, the latter charging in to try and grapple with it. It was easily too strong for them, but Bubbles, MJ and Edward (as best as he could) threw themselves into the fray. Blossom didn't, she just fell to her knees, her eyes going redder then ever as tears flowed down her face. Buttercup staggered away from the claw, chocking on the vial tasting blood as she tried to escape.

A bony hand was placed on her shoulder. Buttercup screamed and whirled round, only to find herself staring into the face of the Grim Reaper. Death stared (as much as a skeleton can stare) straight into her eyes.

**If you want the best for the child** he said, (as much as Death can speak) **you must give the baby to me.**

Buttercup scrabbled away. "No!" she said, shaking wildly. "I… I won't! She's my kid!"

**Let me explain. In order to escape from my domain to rescue you, Brick went through the demon dimension as a short cut. He hopped out of it when he reached earth, but the****demons don't like visitors who leave without saying goodbye. They will drag him down to hell, and if you do not allow me to take the baby somewhere safe, the same will happen to her.**

"I can defend her! It's my job!"

**For the rest of your life, you will need to sleep some time. Give me the child, and she will be looked after by someone that cares for her. Alternatively, she can enjoy living in hell until she dies, if that is what you want.**

Buttercup, quite naturally hesitated. Nearby, Blossom, who was quietly crying, looked up at her sister, as she tried to make the impossible decision. The pink puff stared at her for a moment, and then looked at the attacking claw. With a scream and a flash of energy she charged in too. Death and Buttercup watched her go.

**You don't have long, they will soon be overpowered.**

He, no wait, it was right, but Buttercup didn't want to believe it. How could she just hand her daughter back to the Grim Reaper, just after she'd got her back? There was no way! But could she really condemn her to hell? It was not worth thinking about. This was exactly the last decision she wanted to make. "I… won't…" she stuttered.

The claw finally shrugged off its attackers and charged at Buttercup, the horrible grotesque fingers clutching for its target. Latter, Buttercup would be glad she had to make the decision though instinct. She jammed Bandy away from the monster and away from her, in the only safe direction. Death and Brandy promptly disappeared. The hand also did moments latter. Then, so did the universe.

Without Brandy, its creator and controller, the tiny dimension they had been occupying rapidly became unstable. It soon dispersed vertically upwards, along with it something else. Without the mangled Grey Emerald, or the empowered Brandy, to keep it stable, the Chaos energy also shot away once more, streaming off the planet in a surging wave. It surged out of the puffs too, leaving them all in a mess on the floor.

Presently, the Chaos and noise died away, and slowly, Butch sat up. He glanced around. Everyone seemed physically okay, except… Butch was surprised at how heavy his arm felt. It seemed to weigh a ton (that wasn't much for a Ruff of course). He heaved it upwards, and staggered to his feet. No powers. Nothing. It was over. Brick was gone, again, maybe this time for good. But what about Brandy?

He saw Buttercup lying on the remains of the floor, staring into the sky. Tears were running down her face, but her expression was forced into a fixed grin. Butch hurried over to her as quickly as he could; stumbling across the rough ground he wasn't used to walking on. "Buttercup! What… where is she?"

It was a stupid question, he knew the answer, but he didn't want to here it. Buttercup glanced at him slowly, her eyes without there standard green glow. "She's safe," she whispered hoarsely, but her heart wasn't in it. Butch did the only thing he could, he held her tight, as she shivered in his arms, and he tried to hold back his own tears. A cruel twist of fate; they'd been given back there daughters for a few fleeting moments, just so they could watch her be ripped away once more.

Blossom was thinking the same thing, or try not to. Edward and MJ were watching from a safe distance. Eventually, MJ approached.

"Mum? What… what happened," she asked. Blossom said nothing. Nor did Edward, but his expression had softened some what. Unlike MJ, he understood what had happened, as much as he could. So silently, he helped his mother to her feet. There was little else he could do right now. Blossom looked at her children, and tried not to cry or wince. She glanced over at Buttercup. As much as she would hate to admit it in front of Brick, where ever he was, her sister had lost more then her. At least she had Edward and MJ. And Eddy.

Bubbles wondered over to Buttercup slowly, her eyes filled with genuine sorrow, and maybe a little guilt. "Buttercup," she started when she'd got close enough, "I'm so sorry…"

She may have been under great stress, but the look Buttercup shot her sister was still very harsh; a look that she normally reserved for her worst enemies. "This is your fault," she hissed through her tears, "you couldn't leave that stupid emerald alone! You made this happen!"

Bubbles was slightly taken aback by this. "I…"

"You're a selfish Bitch, understand! Do you understand what your lust for power has cost us?"

"Hey!" interrupted Boomer briefly, "You were changed too…"

"SHUT UP YOU SPINELESS BASTARD!" Buttercup bellowed as loud as she could, "YOU COULDN'T EVEN TELL THAT SHE'D CHANGED INTO A MONSTER!"

Boomer shut his mouth. Bubbles looked desperately at him, and then to Blossom, trying to find some support. There was none.

"Just Fuck off Bubbles," said Buttercup quietly, looking down at the floor. "I never want to see you again.

Bubbles was about to protest, when a gun was pointed at her head. Then guns were pointed at everyone's heads. A bald headed figure emerged walking confidently though the rubbles, trailed by Sonic and Eddy, and two goons pointing guns at there heads.

"Oh come now," said Lex Luthor with unending smugness, "there's no need for your sister to leave, my dear powerless Buttercup. The fun's just about to begin."


	18. Dropping In

Okay, just a quick note to say that in case you were concerned that I'd written Brick out of the sorry completely without warning, I haven't. Okay? So please don't lynch me.

* * *

**18. Dropping In**

Lex Luthor was rather predictably in a very good mood. Everything had gone perfectly to plan. In fact, they had gone better then planed, but Luther wasn't going to dwell on that point. Now, he had the entire world at his feet. He was in that wonderful super villain mood, when victory is assured and all that is left is to gloat the plan over the furious, yet helpless hero. It was time for him to revel in his own genius. The only problem was that no one else seemed in that mood.

Buttercup and Butch had been pulled apart by two burly guards, since they were now too weak to resist. Neither had fought against it, since they had guns pressed up against their heads. Butch was now on his feet, staring off into the middle distance. His wife was sat cross legged on the fall, ignoring the situation and looking straight at the floor. Occasionally, she would scratch something in the dust, which invariably caused the understandably nervous goon who was covering her to twitch slightly. He was obviously concerned about being asked to point a gun at a creature that was known to be not only built proof (if normal bullets were used) but also to be strong enough to snap a human's neck as if it was a piece of spaghetti. Poor fool, thought Luthor, if only he trusted that they were now just normal people. Just like him.

Of course Sonic was still a superhero, but he hadn't been willing to do anything while Eddy's life had been "under the gun," so now there were nine people under threat, Lex was fairly sure that the odds were stacked in his favour. However there was one thing that needed doing, to grantee his safety.

He turned to the Hedgehog. "One moment," he said quietly, before walking slowly past him, Boomer, Edward and MJ, until he was standing over Blossom. He waved for the goon covering her to take a step back, and stared straight in her eyes. They had brown iris's now, a clear sign she'd lost her powers, but surprisingly there was something more noticeable; the hurt and pain displayed in them. Luthor had also noticed that she had been trying to avoid looking at her husband. Someone, or something had broken her first. Dam, thought Lex. Still, he wouldn't let it completely ruin his moment.

He drew a small bat from his pocket. "Don't think I've forgotten who killed Superman," he hissed menacingly. Blossom barely stirred – she, like Buttercup, almost seemed like a living corpse. Luther raised the bat aggressively upwards and finally Blossom flinched in preparation for the impact. Satisfied with this response, Lex swung round and hit MJ hard in the back of the head.

"And don't think I've forgotten that YOU still have your mutant powers!" he pronounced victoriously, as MJ fell face first onto the rubble strewn floor, out cold.

"YOU COWARDLY BASTARD!" shouted Eddy before he could stop himself. "If you want to pick on someone pick on me, leave the kids out of it!"

"That's the spirit!" Lex declared, spinning round dramatically on his heal to face Eddy, "a bit of heroism, and form the only normal person in this group!" He walked over to Eddy, (who was trying not to show how much he was regretting the "bit of heroism,") before turning to the others, as if the master of all he surveyed. "What's wrong with you lot? You should be outraged at my barbarism, and querying my evil genius! It's like a funeral here!" He turned to his next target. "What's wrong little Edward," the said scornfully, before bending down to scratch the eleven year olds chin, "you hate playing the Superhero so much that you have nothing to say over me hurting you sister?"

"I said…" Eddy snorted, but with an ever so slightly cracked voice. He didn't get any further however, because Edward had spat on Lex's hand.

There was a brief pause, as the bald headed Supervillain evaluated this humiliating act. Then he smashed the kid across the face, sending him falling to the floor. Edward took a deep breath as some blood ran down his check. Then he went to push himself up off the floor. Luthor let him get a little way up before kicking him hard under the ribs, winding the young puff and causing him to collapse, wheezing helplessly.

"Leave the kids out of this you coward!" Boomer shouted taking a step forward, (taking the opportunity to let up some pent-up aggression from losing his brother,) before a guard restrained him again. Lex smiled; he'd finally got the reaction that he'd wanted.

"Why?" he asked, wondering over to the blue (powerless) ruff. "What's the point of sparing these two kids the suffering, when I'm about to kill at least ten to twenty million?"

"WHAT!" grasped Boomer, who seemed to be the superhero spokesman at the moment.

"Don't play to him," interrupted Sonic, finally breaking his silence. He was acutely aware of Boomer's inexperience of this side of the pitch, and noticing the large number of firearms pointing at them.

Luthor laughed. "Oh come on Sonic," he kept his eyes fixed on the fuming Boomer. "I'm sure that he wants to get out a bit of aggression, and hear how I'm about to take over the world."

Boomer opened his mouth, but Sonic shot him and everyone else a quietening look. Then he spoke quietly. "If you must."

"Come on," Luthor mocked, encouraging Sonic on, "you'll have to do better then that if you want me to tell you. Flatter me a bit."

Sonic sighed heavily. "Very well, you diabolical genius, how are you going to defeat us all? Please tell me, so that I may marvel at your greatness."

Luthor smiled. "I hope that was sincere Sonic, or you may regret it." Sonic smirked. Luthor took that as enough. "Very well," he said grandly, "I shall tell you. Under the SSR building – you're headquarters – I have planted a Chaos Energy Bomb, constructed from a heap of Chemical X I "found" lying around. Unlike any other Bomb, this explosion will vaporise anything in its path, including even the most powerful superheroes. Now as you well know, all the Superheroes, and villains, on my and your "instructions," are battling outside the very building, due of course to my faked super weapon broadcast _(see earlier chapter, can't remember which one.) _In seven minutes, it will detonate, destroying anything in a three hundred mile radius, including all my enemies and rivals. The political fall out from the blast will provide me with a perfect opportunity to strike. Then no one will be able to stop me from taking over the world! Once I've achieved that, I will have you puffs and ruffs take the blame for the blast, and execute you all. Then me domination will be complete." He glanced around, looking for horrified looks. He didn't get many, as the three original puffs were all too glum anyway. He sort of had a reaction from the others.

"YOU'RE CRAZY!!" screamed Boomer, Butch and Eddy in unison. "There are three cities in that range!"

"And stupid," said Sonic calmly. "If you blow up the SSR, that'll include my Sonia. If this lot is doomed anyway, do you think I'm going to hang around! You have given me no choice."

Luthor waged a finger. "I never give anyone no choice Sonic," he replied, and clicked a finger. Another guard appear, with a gun directed at Sonia's head. "I picked her up before we came here," Luthor gloated to the amazed Sonic. "If you run and try to stop the bomb, I'll kill her. Anyway, the bomb has an emergency trigger," he added, withdrawing a remote control. "I know you're quick, but there is no way that you can get from Mexico to Townsville before I can press a button. If you let me go through with my plan, there is always a chance that you two Mobian's can escape this planet. It's not your home after all."

"Don't worry about me Dad!" shouted the struggling Sonia. "I'll be fine, you have to stop him!"

"No," gibbered Sonic as he tried to suppress the memories of his friend's and family's bodies riddled with bullets. "I won't risk your life!"

"But he's going to kill millions of people!" protested his daughter. "You have too!"

"I…" said Sonic, but then he noticed something – a static fizzling was beginning to crackle above them all. Sonic thought he recognised it, but if he was right, there was going to be a bit of stalling required. So Sonic used the basic formula for distracting a Super Villain; he asked a question that he knew the answer to:

"There's one thing I don't get Lex," he said thoughtfully. "Why did you bother with this set up here in Mexico? I mean why drag us all the way down here when you just could have blown us up with the rest of the superheroes? I mean the Puff's and Ruff's could have taken the blame for it posthumously, that would even have been easier."

"Ah," pounced Luthor, delighted that he had a chance to gloat a bit more, "for a few reasons. Firstly, needed the pyramid to prime the bomb, by using the point at the top to ram high frequency Chaos waves into an extremely compact space. It worked perfectly as you may have guessed. Then, while I was here, I thought it would be wise to get you puff's out of the way. I have been watching you all for a long time, and considering the massive increase in Bubbles' power from absorbing one emerald, it occurred to me that there was a good chance that the blast would, rather then destroying you puffs make you all invincible – and evil. So I tricked Bubbles into trying to take over the universe so that you'd all be down here, rather then up there with the blast."

"But," interrupted Bubbles, "I nearly succeeded. Why risk it?"

Luthor smiled. "Well, it was a bit of a risk, but I had a hunch that Blossom would stop it. You five – sorry, seven with the kids – losing your powers was also a calculated gamble, and a wonderful bonus. I've been studying Chaos Energy for a long time, so that I could take these risks. I think I played it to perfection."

"And," said Sonic encouragingly. Luthor nodded.

"You're a sharp one," he ceded. "I admit, there was one more reason." The turned, and walked over to Blossom. "I wanted revenge on you, my dear. You robbed me of my life's ambition; to kill Superman! You stole my destiny! So I'll destroy you, in the most painful way possible! How do you think I'm doing?"

Blossom glanced up at him, her eyes stinging with tears. He's managed it alright. Brick was gone, forever. She had no idea how she could ever see him again. It was even worse then when she'd not known what had happened to him after his death. She at least had hope then. But now what was the point? If he was in hell, they'd never let her see him, even if she got her self sent down there too. It would be too much of a relief for them; hell was supposed to be a place of suffering. It was over.

There was nothing left for it, she should perhaps just let death come again. But why? Why couldn't she see the bigger picture? Her kids had been beaten by this revolting man before her eyes, yet she'd said and done nothing. She may be blinded to the situation by the pain of her love for Brick, but surely she shouldn't let it override her love for her kids? And her friends, her sister (who'd lost at least as much as her), her husband (who'd stood by her through thick and thin, even if he wasn't Brick), all of whom would be destroyed too. And then there was Sonic, looking at her expectantly. Blossom recornised the look. It was the "I've got a plan and you better not screw it up" look. The only question was what was she supposed to say?

She blinked once, and then straightened up, swallowed the lump in her throat and cleared her mind. That done, staring straight at the disgusting creature before her, the (former) leader of the (former) puffs pulled it out of the bag.

"I'm sorry," she said hazily, "I was in a world of my own there, could you repeat the question?"

As the laughter echoed around, (driven on rather falsely by Sonic) Lex flipped his lid. "YOU MEAN YOU WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION TO ANY OF THAT!!" he bellowed. Then he calmed down. "Pray, what were you thinking of?"

Blossom swallowed a sniffling, and then relaxed fully into a more normal mood (suppressing any thoughts of Brick as much as possible.) "I was thinking about super tonight," she replied.

"What?"

"You see we were going to have dinner at the club house after our round, but that plan has rather gone up the creak, so I'm just trying to work out weather there's anything in the freezer that's suitable. MJ has very pacific eating habits you see."

Luthor was understandably furious. "There's no point in thinking about that," he wailed, "the only dinner you have to look forward to is prison food!"

There was a moment of silence, and then the electronic fizzling above became audible. Luthor paused for a fraction of a second before turning around, but the slight delay proved costly. A portal opened in the air above them, and immediately Shadow, Knuckles and Tails dropped through. They landed on the guards holding Sonia, Sonic and Luthor himself respectively.

"What the…?" spluttered Lex, voicing the sentiment of most of the people present, but Knuckles interrupted him massively.

"Alright," he bellowed, "Where's my Grey Emerald Son… ic?"

But the Blue Hedgehog was already miles away.

* * *

Okay, thanks for reading, I hope that was alright. The rest of this story isn't just about "Sonic" characters, so don't worry please. Next chapter might also be the last one, depending how much summing up I need to do. Anyway, thanks for reading. See you soon. 


	19. SP's Mum and epilogue

Okay, final chapter, just check you've read chapter 18 please. Thanks.

**19. SP's Mum**

Things can happen very quickly when guns are involved. This is mainly due to the amount of tension involved. Both the bearer of the weapon and the person it is being pointed at suffer a lot of stress during the confrontation, resulting in a lot of adrenaline being pumped into the body. Therefore, just like animals, decisions tend to be made more on the basis of instinct then anything else.

So when the weapon bearers are momentarily distracted by, say, three aliens dropping in from a portal in the sky for no apparent reason, then the potential victims are bound to react. In the situation in our story, the reaction involved a number of flying arms and elbows, followed by a desperate scramble for freedom. A couple of shots were fired in the confusion, but Shadow, Knuckles and Tails also judged the situation on the basis of instinct, and targeted those with the guns.

Once the skirmish had finished, our heroes had managed to group on one side, and Luthor's goon on another (around Luthor himself, who was still scrabbling around in the mud.)

"Everyone okay?" asked Shadow as they regrouped.

"And what the hell's going on," asked Knuckles.

"Long story," said Blossom quickly, "all you need to know is that they're the bad guys and we've lost our powers."

"Great," said Shadow. "You might want to stand back, unless you're feeling suicidal." Blossom and Buttercup avoided eye contact.

Tails, who'd rescued the unconscious MJ in the chaos, landed at the back. "Where should I put the kid?" he asked.

"Here!" called Eddy relieved to get his family back unhurt.

Lex Luthor picked himself out and stared savagely at his goons. "What are you waiting for?! Don't just stand there, kill them!"

"You're going to need help," Butch murmured to Shadow, as Luthor's men reloaded their weapons, "and I want to get out a lot of aggression."

"Are you crazy!" interrupted Boomer as Shadow raised an eyebrow, "we're in no longer bullet proof, and they've got all those weapons."

"Weapons?" Shadow mused. There was a spurt of rapid movement, and Shadow reappeared, his hands full of guns that had formally belonged to Luthor's goons. "They don't have any weapons!"

"Fantastic," Butch sneered. "I needed a work out. Coming Buttercup?" he asked sort of hopefully, but his wife had already made her way to the back, indicating her lack of desire for a fight. Butch sighed, and thought of Brandy. Please pull through Butters, he thought desperately. I can't lose you both.

At this point, the goons decided that they wanted to get there weapons back – they were expensive after all. So they charged.

* * *

When you spend your life dressed in a skin tight brightly coloured costume pretending to have a different name and proclaiming to fight for truth, nobility and justice, it says quiet a lot about you as a person. One of those things is that you are bound to have a very large ego. This isn't true of all superheroes, but that doesn't mean it's never true.

When we last heard about the other members of the SSR, they were about to fight just about every free Super villain going – the stupid ones because Lex Luthor had broadcast a faked news story saying there was a super weapon in the SSR's vaults, and the intelligent ones because the presence of lots of stupid ones gave them a brilliant opportunity to overwhelm the heroes.

On Paper, the battle had looked to be quite even. It turned out to be fairly easy, and not just because the heroes always win. It was mainly because the Superheroes were wiling to (mostly) work together; allowing them to double team strong villains, and save injured heroes from destruction, to allow them to return to the battle latter.

So, now that the dust was settling, and any still mobile villains running away, the ego's were creeping out of the wood work, and helping to prove all the old stereotypes.

"How can you possibly claim to have got more then fifty," demanded Cyclops.

"Just look at the slash marks weakling," sniffed Wolverine, "you were just lazy."

"Some of those people with slash marks attacked me!" retorted his fellow X-man, "you hadn't finished them, so they don't count."

Batman sighed heavily. These competitions had become even more competitive since Sonic had started paying bonuses based people on performance. Sorting out the score was normally Blossom's job, and now he could see why. It wasn't his sort of job at all; he was supposed to be a vigilante for flips sake.

"Right," he said decisively, "while you two are arguing I'll go ask someone else… Goku?"

"Well I got about sixty five," Goku replied happily, "so I suppose Wolverine could have got more then fifty."

"Yes quite," Batman said sharply, keen not to inflame the situation. "I'll make a note of it. Vegeta?"

"Five."

"Really? Is that all?"

"Let's just say that I enjoyed toying with them."

Batman rolled his eyes, but before he could write it down, Sonic screeched to a halt just in front of him.

"Hi Bruce, how did it go?" he quipped.

"We…"

"Fantastic, listen, seen a bomb around here? It's kind of important."

"No, and that's what most of the Super villains asked us," Batman snorted, who was slightly annoyed that Sonic had used his real name. But Sonic wasn't listening.

"Of course!" he snapped his fingers. "Luthor's broadcast wasn't a lie!" He lifted a foot off the ground in preparation for a sprint, and then turned to Batman again.

"Just in case I cock this up, get everyone you can three hundred miles away from here now. Got it?"

"Yes, but…"

"Don't think Bruce, do!" And with that Sonic was speeding down into the bowels of the SSR building.

* * *

Without their superpowers, Luthor's thugs were almost a match for the two ruffs and puffs one-on-one. The problems for them came when the four mobians (Shadow, Tails, Knuckles and Sonia) started double teaming them. Eddy and Edward also tried to assist by throwing stones at them, while Buttercup, her heart and mind on a different planet, sat out with the snoozing MJ and the stolen guns. It wasn't long before Tails had taken out the final goon, and the violence was over. Boomer breathed a sigh of relief and exhaustion.

"I'm glad that's over," he panted, "and no one's hurt I assume."

"A guard stood on my foot," complained Knuckles, "but overwise no."

Shadow looked around suspiously. "If that's it," he said slowly, "we can go find Sonic and the Grey Emerald." Blossom swallowed a lump.

"About that…" she started, as thoughts of Brick crept back now that the distraction of fighting had gone. But she didn't get far.

"You are all idiots, you know that," Lex Luthor declared triumphantly. He was stood on a pile of rubble gloating over them all. In his hand was the remote detonator for the bomb, and his finger was hovering above the button. "Give me one go reason why I shouldn't press it?" he asked.

"Oh, I know this one," Eddy replied with mock excitement, "is it because we'll kill you?"

"Precisely!" Lex replied, "which is why I won't press it, but you won't stop me boarding my helicopter over there and flying off."

"And then you'll press the Button," growled Knuckles angrily. "What makes you think we'll let you do that?"

"You'll just have to trust that I won't," Luthor replied, "and if you think you can snatch it from me before I can detonate the bomb, think agai…"

But he also got no further, because a line of spider webbing wrapped around the device and whipped it away from Lex. He barely managed to say, "oh shi…" before Sonia piled into him, quickly followed by the two powerless Ruffs.

Blossom turned around, relived that her life wasn't going to get any worse. "Well done MJ…" she began, but then she stopped. For it wasn't MJ holding the detonator.

"I've got it! I've got it!" SP gabbled happily to herself, "Now I can press the button and make everything go Boom!"

* * *

Being a freedom fighter is like being a terrorist. The only difference is whose side you're on. (Anyone want to argue?) Having been the leader of the "Freedom Army of Mobious," against Robotnik of course, Sonic knew a good deal about Bombs. He'd made one himself to try and kill the dictator, but he'd survived. (Sonic had latter shot him in the head, but that was another story.) So he was confident he could defuse this one.

It didn't take him long to find it in the vault, as Blossom had tidied the place recently (well, she'd supervised others tidying it.) Soon he was lifting the hatch. Of course, Lex was no amateur; the bomb was fairly complex, but nothing a blue hedgehog couldn't manage.

He glanced at his watch. There was no need to worry about the timer, he still had seven minutes. The only worry was the detonator. For once he hoped that Shadow was doing a good job.

* * *

"That's the creature that stole my Emerald!" shouted Knuckles, pointing directly at SP. MJ's clone ignored him, she was too busy chuntering to herself.

"Don't worry babies," she whispered excitedly, "your big sisters going to avenge you now."

"Right," said Shadow stepping forward, "she's not dodging me twice."

She did. Shadow ended up staggering away from his point of impact with a tree. SP Clutched the detornator away from him, her spider sense having tipped her off.

"NO!" she slurred through her two fanged teeth, "this is mine, and I'm going to blow it all up! Then I'll kill Bubbles and MJ while there here (Bubbles let out a frightened gasp) and then I'll have had my revenge!"

"Wait," stuttered Bubbles, "I didn't mean to k-kill your fellow clones, I…I was being controlled by some evil influence."

"Then so am I," SP immediately replied, as she licked her lips and eyed Bubbles. "You look tasty.

Bubbles shirked slightly, and took a step back, terrified by SP's stare, while Luthor took advantage of Butch being completely distracted by SP's reappearance to break slightly free of Sonia's and Boomer's hold. Enough to call out to SP.

"That's a good girl," he wailed. "Press the button, and kill these freaks, and I'll give you what ever you want!"

SP looked at him, a smile etching across her face. "What ever I want?" she asked, her voice filling will an excitement that was written across her expressive face.

"Anything!" Luthor confirmed before Boomer and Sonia covered his mouth and hit him. SP smiled.

"Okay," she replied simply. Her finger sped towards the button.

"SP Nooooooo!" screamed Butch desperately, as everyone else braced. Well, nearly everyone.

"NO SP!" another voice commanded. The kid had ignored Butch's voice, but now she did stop, almost instinctively, and she turned to face the voice's owner.

"But… I want to," she protested.

Buttercup, now on her feet was having none of it. "No you don't SP. It's naughty. Put it down."

"But Bubbles…" SP started with a childish wine.

"Do you think I want you to be like Bubbles?" interrupted Buttercup angrily. "And don't talk back to me!" SP's shoulder's slumped; suddenly she looked so crushed as to be pathetic. Buttercup sighed and opened her arms. "Come hear," she said motherly. SP looked up, and then dropped the detonator and through her self into her mother's arms. Buttercup wrapped her into a tight hug, tears running down both cheeks.

Butch stood up, water glistening in his eyes too. He looked at Luthor. "You and SP and me and Buttercup have something in common," he murmured.

"What," sulked Lex.

"I couldn't give Buttercup what she really wanted anymore then you could give SP," Butch replied, staring at his wife and daughter, "but maybe, they can give it to each other."

**Epilogue**

Back at the Panner house hold, evening dinner was finally taking place. (For the record, Blossom was right in suspecting that she hadn't got anything out of the freezer, so they were having fish and chips.) MJ was nursing a headache, and a bit of depression from missing out what had happened at the end.

"So Aunty Buttercup and Uncle Butch adopted SP?" she asked, confused. "But shouldn't SP be in jail?"

"Yes," admitted Blossom, "But Sonic ruled that SP was too dangerous for prison, so should be put under constant supervision of a trusted SSR member."

"Who would have thought Sonic could do that sort of thing," mused Eddy, "you know, being nice."

"Yes, he's funny about those sorts of things," Blossom agreed, "but he knows better then most what it is like to be separated from a child. SP won't make up for the loss of Brandy because these things don't work that way, but I think that both Buttercup and Butch needed her. And she defiantly needed them."

"Funny how the kid just turned up," Eddy said.

"Yes," said Blossom flatly, she hadn't told him about Brick. Fortunately, the kids were chewing and missed it. She tried not to think about him.

"Will Buttercup forgive Bubbles?" asked Edward, "I mean, in the long run."

"I don't know," Blossom replied. She was wondering how long it was going to take her to forgive Bubbles. "You see, Bubbles wasn't herself when she did that evil stuff. She lost control; blinded by her own power. Let that be a lesson to you kids."

"Buttercup lost control too," Edward said, "maybe she'd angry with herself for turning evil like Bubbles did, and that's why she can't forgive her easily."

"That's the answer Double D would give," Eddy said through his food. "He may have a point though."

"It was my point!" Edward retorted. Eddy shrugged apologetically. MJ giggled.

"How are you going to cope without your powers Mum?" she asked once she'd finished. Blossom eyed her.

"Don't be smug just 'cause you've still got half of yours," she said in a lot more cheerful way then she felt. "Seriously, it's going to be hard. Knuckles says they'll return once all the Chaos Energy in the universe has stabilised, but that could take days or centuries. It's a bit of a problem with work too. Sonic says he'll keep me on as an administrator, but he might struggle to convince the government that the others deserve a job in the SSR."

"Well if there's trouble they can always work for me," said Eddy, "I can always do with a bit of extra help."

"So all Puffs are powerless," said Edward almost excitedly.

"Yes," Blossom replied, "that includes you."

"All the living ones anyway," said Eddy.

It was a throw away line, and Blossom suspected it was probably meant to reassure her. But she didn't want to pretend anymore. "It's been a long day," she said flatly, "I'm going to bed."

"Alright hon," said Eddy chirpily, having completely missed Blossom's tone, "I'll come in quietly latter." He watched Blossom go, and then sat back in his chair. Everything was good, he thought. Blossom's lost powers meant that she'd have less work to do, so would be able to spend more time with the kids, and he felt that he'd really reconnected with her inside the pyramid. He'd seen her weak and struggling, and been able to build her up again. It was a fantastic feeling; finally he'd been able to do for her what she'd done for him for all these years. Maybe, just maybe, he was Blossom's husband on merit rather then horrendous good fortune.

He was so deep in this thought that he missed something. "Sorry, what was that?" he garbled as he staggered back into reality.

"Nothing," said Edward quickly, but MJ wasn't listening.

"Dad, who's Brick?" she asked again.

"What?"

"It's just he appeared in the Pyramid with Brandy and he and Mum kissed."

"Before he was dragged down to Hell," Edward added quickly.

"And he looked like he was a red Ruff," MJ countered.

Eddy stared straight at the wall, in shock. He stared there for so long that the kids grew nervous. "Dad?" they said in chorus.

Eddy Glanced at the two of them. "Brick? He's nobody. I'm going to the toilet."

MJ and Edward watched him go, and then Edward jabbed his younger sister in the ribs. "What did you have to do that for!"

* * *

Eddy closed and locked the door. Then he stared at the wall. He still couldn't win. There was nothing he could do. Blossom was everything to him, everything in the world. Everything that was good in his life came from her. And yet, he still couldn't give her what she wanted. What she needed. Brick was always ahead.

He thumped the wall. It wasn't fair! What more could he do! He was only human, and Brick was so much more then that. That bastard had only been with her for fifteen odd years, most of which he'd been trying to destroy her. He'd given Blossom everything he could, support through all he mental problems; support against her family when they'd wanted her not to stop crime fighting. He'd always been there for her and never complained that Blossom loved Brick more. And how did she repay him! By kissing the –anker the first time she saw him, without a thought for him, or the kids.

After knawing on the shower curtain for a while, Eddy calmed down a bit. What was the point of being angry, who would it help. As much as he hated it, he loved Blossom too much to be this angry with her. She was weak, in many ways, just like him. And even if she didn't love him, that had never been a good enough reason for him to stop loving her in the past, so why now. Sure it hurt to have it rubbed in his face, but… now Brick was in Hell, maybe he had a chance.

He thought briefly of Blossom. She must be distraught. The best thing that he could do would be to say nothing, and give her at least an hour or so of space. Then, life would have to continue as normal. Just as it had for sixteen years.

Maybe he'd ask what was wrong though, just to see if she'd tell him the truth…

Brick hadn't lost his powers, but that didn't really help him soften his fall into hell. He landed with a thud, and looked up. Slowly, three things when through his head.

He was still alive.

He had to find a way out, back to Blossom.

And, thirdly; "What a dump!"

Okay, that's that. Another story done, meaning another squeal on the way. It's going to be co-written by my brother mg34 again, who helped with "Parallel Lives" but should be a bit different… If you want a preview of what should be quite a short story, ask me, and I'll give you directions.

Anyway, I'd just like to say thanks for reading, and a special thanks to those who reviewed (or are going to, hint hint.) See you soon.


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